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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 






UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 




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PICTURESQUE 



European Scenery. 



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A SERIES OF VIEWS OF THE MOST INTERESTING AND STRIKING 
LANDSCAPES OF THE OLD WORLD. 



By LEO DE COLANGE, LL.D. 



WITH NEARLY ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY ILLUSTRATIONS 

By GUSTAVE DORE, DE NEUVILLE, FRANQAIS, CLERGET, DAUBIGNY, AND OTHERS. 



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BOSTON: 

ESTES AND LAURIAT, PUBLISHERS. 

1883. 



<THE LIBRA lm 
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Copyright, 1SSS, 
By Estes and Lauriat. 



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CONTENTS. 



Page 

GREAT BRITAIN ! 

NORWAY 45 

DENMARK 57 

POLAND 66 

SPAIN 69 

NORTHERN PROVINCES OF PORTUGAL 92 

THE GERMAN EMPIRE 103 

ROME I22 




GREAT BRITAIN. 



PERHAPS no country in the world offers to the lover of the picturesque 
a more enchanting variety of natural loveliness and architectural grand- 
eur than does this favored land. It is a very cmbarms de richesses, and since 
selection must be made, we find ourselves almost at a loss to know what 
to describe and what to omit. 

Two thoughts, however, will guide us, and two aims will present them- 
selves as desirable : one, to describe scenes and regions out of the usual line 



2 PICTURESQUE EUROPEAN SCENERY. 

of travel, and somewhat unfamiliar to the pen and pencil; the other, to lay 
before our readers as much variety as possible in the pictures we present 
to them, so that, in some degree, we may exhibit the multiform scenes and 
objects of interest which make Great Britain so attractive both to the lover 
of nature and the student of art. 

We shall begin with the south shore of England, — the sea-coast of 
Devon and the county of Cornwall. The rugged coasts are composed mainly 
of the older rocks ; igneous action is everywhere manifested, and in many 




TEIGNMOUTH. 



places the strata are twisted and contorted in a manner defying all description. 
The variety of climate in these counties is remarkable ; sheltered nooks on 
the south coast enjoying a mild and equable temperature, while wide moors 
of more elevated position are drenched with mist, and swept by the fierce 
Atlantic storms. The salt of the sea is often borne across the country by 
the tempest, and after heavy winds produces a noticeable effect upon vege- 
tation. Rain is also extremely frequent, as is shown in the popular Cornish 
adage that the supply for the county is "a shower every week-day and two 
on Sundays." 

One of the finest situations on the Devon sea-coast is Teignmouth, the 
home of W. M. Praed, the poet, and now one of the finest of the summer 
watering-places in the county. 

A few miles south lies Dartmouth, an extremely old town, of great inter- 
est to the traveller. It is built in terraces on the shore of a beautiful land- 




PONT ABERGLASLYN. 



PICTURESQUE EUROPEAN SCENERY. 5 

locked harbor opening to the sea by a narrow channel, and encompassed by 
steeply-shelving rocks. In the time of Edward III. it was a port of so 
much consequence that it furnished thirty-one ships to the fleet which was 
to besiege Calais. At a more recent period it was from Dartmouth that the 
adventurers set forth who first visited Newfoundland and established its 
important fisheries. Sir Humphrey Gilbert was born near here, and Davis, 
the bold seaman who discovered the Straits to which he gave his name. At 
a still earlier date (1190) Dartmouth harbor was the place of rendezvous 
where Richard Cceur-de-Lion gathered his crusading fleet ; while many old 
towers and forts on the shore or on the heights of Dartmouth tell of the civil 
wars of England in which the town bore a part. 




DARTMOUTH. 



The most important of the seaport towns of Devon is, however, Plymouth, 
which, with its sister towns, Stonehouse and Devonport, forms both a great 
focus of trade and a war-station of the first importance. Its history runs back 
to the time of Henry II. From this port, Drake, Raleigh, and Cavendish 
sailed to find fame — if not fortune — in a new world; from this, the last spot 
of English ground their feet had trodden, the Pilgrim Fathers named the 
colony they founded beyond the seas ; Captain Cook sailed from Plymouth 
in 1768, and again in 1772. In 1861 the three towns had a joint population 
of about one hundred and twenty-eight thousand inhabitants, which has no 
doubt considerably increased since that time. 

Plymouth Hoe (the rising ground covered with buildings at the right in 
the illustration) is one of the most beautiful promenades in the kingdom. It 
is a high ridge of land constituting the sea-front of Plymouth. The view 
from it is of great variety and beauty, and the traveller, as he looks across the 



PICTURESQUE EUROPEAN SCENERY. 



observer 



level waters of the open ocean, is in- 
terested to remember heroes of the 
past who have also made Plymouth 
Hoe a look-out. This was the point 
of the English coast whence the Ar- 
mada was first discerned, and tra- 
dition asserts that Sir Francis Drake 
and the other captains were playing 
bowls here when the news of the 
great fleet's approach was brought to 
them ; in memory whereof it was long 
the custom for the mayor and cor- 
poration of Plymouth, on the anni- 
versary of that day, to wear their 
scarlet, and to entertain their visitors 
with cake and wine, 
i From this terrace it was that 

| Smeaton, in 1758 and later, used to 
a. watch for the safety of his light- 
house, built on the Eddystone Rock, 
fourteen miles out to sea. "After a 
rough night," says Smiles, " his sole 
thought was of his light-house. There 
were many who still persisted in as- 
serting that no building erected of 
stone could possibly stand upon the 
Eddystone ; and again and again the 
engineer, in the dim gray of the morn- 
ing, would come out and peer through 
his telescope at his deep-sea lamp- 
post. Sometimes he had to wait long 
until he could see a tall white pil- 
lar of spray shoot up into the air. 
Thank God, it was still safe ! " 

Besides the Eddystone light, the 
who looks off across the Sound to the open sea will observe another 




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light-house, at the extremity of a great 
stone bar lying across the opening 
of the Sound, the famous Plymouth 
breakwater built 1812-1S45, at a cost 
of a million and a half pounds Ster- 



ling. 



The entire length of this break- 



water is about a mile ; its width at 
base varies from three hundred to 
four hundred feet, diminishing to fifty 
at its top ; and its total depth varies, 
with the irregularity of the level on 
which it rests, from forty to eighty 
feet. 

In the illustration representing 
Devonport will be remarked on the 
left a broad sheet of water, extend- 
ing back as far as Saltash, whose 5 
houses are faintly discernible, a low 
line along the foot of a hill. This 
land-locked sheet is the Hamoaze, 



where English vessels of war lie " in 



" laid aside till 
To enter upon 



ordinary," — a curious technicality, 
which indicates a 
wanted " condition. 

this condition implies that guns and 
ammunition are removed, top-masts, 
sails, and rigging taken off, the sail- 
ors and marines dismissed, the officers 
ordered away, and the huge, dismantled 
ship placed in charge of a single offi- 
cer and a handful of men, who live on 
board. The appearance of these ships 
is odd enough ; their lightened con- 
dition bringing them far up out of 
water, and their long ranges of empty 
port-holes looming grimly, like the windows of a deserted house. 




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PICTURESQUE EUROPEAN SCENERY. 



The column rising in the centre of the town is a fluted Doric pillar, a 
hundred and twenty-five feet in height, erected in 1824, to commemorate the 
change of name of the town from Plymouth Dock to Devonport. The great 
dock-yard, built in the time of William III., has now come to be one of the 
finest arsenals in the world, affording employment, in time of peace, to three 
thousand people, and covering an extent of ninety-six acres of ground. 

Sixteen miles north of Plymouth is Tavistock on the little river Tavy, a 
branch of the Tamar, the boundary between Devon and Cornwall. The 
town is the centre of a mining district whose operations are carried on close 
up to its houses, while a couple of large iron foundries add to the local 
industry. Its early importance was due to a magnificent Benedictine abbey, 




TAVISTOCK. 



founded a century before the Norman Conquest, by a Saxon earl, or " Eal- 
dorman," of Devonshire, who by his great wealth ruled the country far and 
wide. This abbey, still in its highest splendor, was broken up by Henry 
VIII., and its revenues conferred upon Lord John Russell, whose descendant, 
the Duke of Bedford, is the present owner of the site. But little remains 



PICTURESQUE EUROPEAN SCENERY. 



1 1 



of the ancient buildings, yet enough to show how extensive was the early- 
structure. 

Of later date is the great church of St. Eustache, whose tower is shown 
in our picture. At its base this tower is pierced by arches on all four sides, 
so that it is really separated from the building, and is a campanile. 

Returning to Plymouth, we give a last look at Devon, and, crossing the 
Tamar, are in Cornwall, " the land of Pol, and Tre, and Pen." And first is 
Fowey, the old seaport, which once ranked with Plymouth and Dartmouth. 
The harbor is still famous, admitting vessels of large size at all times of the 
tide. On each shore are the ruins of square forts built in the time of 
Edward IV., which once supported the ends of the great chain that barred the 
harbor. On the cliffs, high above the water (see illustration below), are the 
ruins of St. Catherine's Fort, erected by the townspeople in the reign of 
Henry VIII.; and on the left is a windmill, referred to in chronicles of 1296 
as a well-known sea-mark, built, it is believed, by some returned crusader i 
the use of windmills being, as is well known, introduced into England from 
Palestine. 




FOWEY. 



Five miles inland from Fowey runs the Cornwall railway, on its road 
from Plymouth to Truro, and then the West Cornwall road goes on to 
Penzance, within ten miles of Land's End. 

In the neighborhood of Truro are the ruins of St. Piran's Church, per- 
haps the oldest Christian edifice in England, built, it is believed, in the fifth 
century, submerged by sand about three hundred years later, and revealed 
by the sand again shifting in 1835. Nothing can be imagined more primi- 
tive than this little structure, which is but twenty-nine feet long and 



12 



PICTURESQUE EUROPEAN SCENERY. 



sixteen and a half in breadth. The masonry is of the rudest description, and 
affords a striking proof of the antiquity of the church. No lime has been 
used by the builder, but china-clay — a product of the neighborhood — and 
sand employed instead ; and in this the stones are imbedded without regard 
to order, consisting of blocks of slate and granite, some rough, others rounded 
like big pebbles. The invasion of the sand is a peculiarity of this part of 
the Cornish coast, and has desolated it for miles, sometimes with an accumu- 
lation of several feet in a single night. 




TRURO. 



The railway, whose viaduct is seen in the foreground of the illustration 
given here, is a short branch of the Cornwall, leading from Truro to Fal- 
mouth, and coming out near Pendennis Castle, the famous old fort which is 
seen (page 15) crowning the hillock in the centre of the picture. Falmouth 
itself is but a little town of about six thousand inhabitants, consisting mainly 
of a long narrow street, straggling along the water's edge, but its surround- 
ings give it great distinction. The winding shores of its harbor are well 
known to the landscape-painter, and the haven itself " is very notable and 



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PICTURESQUE EUROPEAN SCENERY. 



15 



famous," says Leland ; while Carew 
asserts that " a hundred sail of ves- 
sels may anchor in it, and not one 
see the masts of another." Its en- 
trance, defended by Pendennis Castle 
on the one side and St. Mavves on 
the other, is about a mile wide, and 
within, the harbor expands into a 
broad smooth basin, extending inland 
four miles to the mouth of the Truro 
River. 

An interesting association con- 
nects Falmouth with Sir Walter 
Raleigh, — in fact, the town may be 
said to owe its existence to the 
great navigator. On his return from 
Guiana Sir Walter visited the har- 5 

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bor, and found but one solitary house, 
in addition to an ancient manor of .* 
the Killigrew family, standing on the 
site of the present town. Filled with 
admiration at the advantages of this 
remarkable estuary, he represented its 
importance to the Queen and her 
council, and a settlement was at once 
made there, which, after being known 
first as Smithike, and then as Penny- 
come-quick (evidently a corruption of 
the Cornish words Pen, Combe, and 
Ick), in 1660 received, by royal procla- 
mation, its name of Falmouth, and 
the following year was invested by 
charter with the rights and dignities 
of a corporate town. 

Pendennis Castle, however, is of 
older date, being built in the time of Henry 




II 



VIII., and having enjoyed 



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PICTURESQUE EUROPEAN SCENERY. 



distinction of standing out for King Charles longer than any other fort in 
England. 

South of Falmouth, and nearly cut off from the mainland by the little 
river Helford, is the district of the Lizard, sometimes called the Cornish 
Chersonese. Its greatest length and breadth does not exceed ten miles each 
way, and the promontory narrows at last to a sharp tip known as Lizard 
Point, the most southerly point of England. The geologic peculiarity of this 
region is the presence of a large area of serpentine, a rare and beautiful rock, 
dark-green, reddish, and streaked, suggestive of a lizard's skin, and probably 
giving, by this appearance, the name to the district and the cape. It makes 
a barren soil, but one favorable to the growth of the Erica vagans, the rarest 




LIZARD POINT. 



and most beautiful of the English heaths. It is a singular fact that this 
heath grows nowhere else but in a small region on the west coast of Portu- 
gal ; and the same is true of the SibtJiorpia Europcza, another Cornish plant 
of the moneywort family. 

The Lizard serpentine is used in the construction of cottages in all the 
region where it abounds, and has also, of late years, become quite an article 
of trade, families of stone-cutters and lapidaries having established themselves 
in all directions, and converted into a thousand elegant trifles this really beau- 
tiful and curious rock. Vases and cups, paper-weights, even bracelets and 
small ornaments, are made of it and offered for sale to tourists, and have 
made fine show at all the successive Expositions, ever since that of 1862 in 
London. 



PICTURESQUE EUROPEAN SCENERY. 17 

Two miles west of the point is the famous Kynance Cove, one of the 
wonders of the Cornish coast. A steep descent leads down to the shore, 
among wild rocks that are grouped as if by a painter's hand, and with their 
dark and varied colors contrast exquisitely with the light tints of the sandy 
beach and the changeful azure of the sea. The predominant color of the 
serpentine is an olive green, diversified by veins of red and purple, while the 




KYNANCE COVE. 



rocks are incrusted with yellow lichen and cut by seams of dull white steatite. 
The ragged rocks are pierced by caverns which the waves have worn down 
to the smoothest polish, and the beach is strewn with pebbles, which, when 
they are wet, have almost the brilliancy of the precious stones. In the centre 
of the cove rises a pyramidal rocky mass, insulated at high water, and known 
as Asparagus Island, from the wild luxuriance of that useful plant. This rock 
is pierced by a deep chasm, from which, at certain states of the tide, a column 
of water is violently projected high into the air. Three of the largest caverns 
on the mainland are named the Parlor, the Dining-Room, and the Kitchen, and 
every point has its legend and its superstition. 



i8 PICTURESQUE EUROPEAN SCENERY. 

Penzance (see page 13) is a clean and handsome town, laid out with 
regularity. The quays along the sea form an enchanting promenade, and it 
has a background of gardens rising behind it to the summit of the hill. Its 
principal public buildings are the Town Hall, a granite structure with a dome, 
and St. Paul's Chapel, also of granite, built in 1835. But the antiquities of 
Penzance are its people. They are all that remain in England of the ancient 
Celtic family which once peopled it, their type distinctly joining to the Celtic 
or Breton race, with its dark hair, gray eyes, and dark, colorless complexion. 
Until within a century, the Cornish language, which belongs to the Cymric 
division of the Celtic, was yet spoken among the fishwomen of Penzance, 
and now lingers everywhere in the names of lake, and hill, and town, with 
their Cornish prefixes, Pol, Pen, and Tre. 

The mild climate of Penzance renders it not only the flower-garden, but 
also the vegetable-garden of the south coast, and its early potatoes and cauli- 
flower, and other edibles of this sort, are in great demand in the large cities. 
Its fisheries, however, furnish its chief revenue, and are carried on upon an 
immense scale. The Cornish fisherman pursues his work all the year round, 
with drift-net, seine, and hook and line : mackerel and pilchards are the 
objects of the first method of pursuit ; pilchards alone of the second ; and hake, 
cod, and whiting of the third. About the end of January comes the early 
mackerel fishing ; late in July comes the summer pilchard season ; in October 
is the autumnal mackerel fishing, and from that time till December, the winter 
pursuit of the pilchard. Between whiles the Cornishman goes over to Ireland 
after herring, or follows the retreating shoals down the Channel. 

Of these fisheries, that for the pilchard is most entertaining to the 
stranger. It is a very small fish, much like the herring, and comes in such 
shoals as actually to impede the passage of vessels, and discolor the water 
as far as the eye can reach. The sight of this countless fish army coming 
upon the coast is one of the most interesting and remarkable that can be 
imagined. In a single day twelve million of them have been captured, and 
their number not perceptibly reduced. The drift-net fishing is pursued by 
night at a distance of some miles from land. The method adopted is to 
stretch a string of nets like a wall through the sea, for the length of half 
or three quarters of a mile, and a depth of thirty feet, and allow them to drift 
with the tide, so intercepting the pilchards as they swim, and entangling them 
by the gills. In this way a single boat will take fifty thousand fish in a 



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PICTURESQUE EUROPEAN SCENERY. 



21 



night. The chief obstacles to this mode of fishing are the moonlight and the 
phosphorescence of the water. The latter sometimes enables the fisherman to 
see his net to its full extent, like a brilliant lacework of fire, and shows it, too, 
to the fish, which, alarmed by the light, diverge to right and left, and escape 
the snare. 

When brought to land, the fish are taken in charge by girls and women, 
cured, cleansed, packed, squeezed to obtain their oil, then headed up in hogs- 
heads and exported to Naples and other Italian and Spanish ports, where 




PILCHARD FISH. 



they furnish a large part of the food of the poorer classes. These fishwomen 
make a class by themselves in Penzance, and have their stalls under the 
Town Hall. In 1861 the mistress of these fishwomen, then eighty-four years 
old, went on foot to London, where she was presented to the Queen. 

Nearly due east from Penzance, across the bay, lies St. Michael's Mount, 
connected with the mainland by a causeway four hundred yards long, which 
lies under water eight hours out of the twelve. Crossing at low tide, the 
traveller will find himself in a little fishing village with a good harbor, whence 
leads up a rocky path to the Castle, a hundred and ninety-five feet above the 
sea-level. 



22 PICTURESQUE EUROPEAN SCENERY. 

The great charm of St. Michael's Mount (see page 19) is its wonderful 
beauty of situation, and all the old historic and poetic interest that clings 
about it. This is Milton's "great vision of the guarded mount," which 

" Looks toward Namancos and Bayonna's hold," 

and its kinship with St. Michael's Mount in Normandy is strangely poetic 
and interesting. 

Its old Cornish name signified " The Gray Rock in the Wood," and seems 
to favor a tradition that at an early period the mount was covered with a 
forest, and situated at some distance inland. Edward the Confessor, seeing 
in it a sort of miniature of St. Michael's across the channel, made a gift of it 
to the Norman monastery, the great Benedictine House of St. Michael, " in 
periculo maris" Both mounts were fortresses as well as religious houses, and 
contained garrisons as well as convents ; and to both appertain traditions of 
extensive lands and forests submerged by the sea. The Cornish castle has 
been the scene of many attacks, and, more than once, has been taken by 
strategy; its last appearance in history is during the Parliamentary wars, 
when it was reduced by Colonel Hammond, one of Cromwell's officers. 

What now remains of the old castle is chiefly the hall and the chapel. 
The former was the refectory of the monks, and has at the upper end of the 
room the royal escutcheon and the date, 1660. The chapel has a fine tower, 
the most ancient portion of the building and the loftiest. Its summit is two 
hundred and fifty feet above the sands, and the lantern surmounting it is 
popularly called St. Michael's Chair, since it will just allow space for one 
person to sit down. The Cornish legend which attaches to the well of St. 
Keyne, and is made familiar to every school-boy by Southey's poem, is also 
told of this lantern, and many a fair married traveller, it is said, will venture 
upon the somewhat perilous feat, in the hope of securing that domestic sov- 
ereignty so dearly prized by either sex. 

From Penzance, along the coast to Land's End, are wonderful formations 
in granite, — caverns, Druidic monuments, and ever the grand ocean views 
which give such majesty to the scene. About half-way to Land's End is what 
is called a cliff castle of great renown, and of antiquity impossible to deter- 
mine. It is a headland of granite, shaggy with a kind of moss, and weathered 
into rhomboidal masses, marked in many places with the vivid colors of 
porphyritic rock. The headland is isolated by an intrenchment of earth and 



PICTURESQUE EUROPEAN SCENERY. 



23 



stones, forming a triple line of defence about fifteen feet high at its outer 
edge, faced with stones, and having an entrance marked with granite posts. 
Very many of the Cornish headlands are thus fortified, but a peculiar interest 
is attached to this one, Treryn Castle, because it contains the famous Logan 
Stone, a great rock thirty feet in circumference, so delicately poised that a 
touch will make it vibrate, but so firm that it was the country's boast that no 
power could dislodge it from its place. Until about fifty years since this 
vaunt had never been discredited, when a hare-brained young English officer, 
in command of a revenue vessel, with the assistance of his crew, had the 
audacity to try — and the bad luck to succeed in the attempt — to throw the 
Loean Stone over into the water. 




LOGAN ROCK. 

Loud was the rejoicing of the jolly tars at their feat, but short-lived was 
the young lieutenant's self-congratulation. One united wail of regret and howl 
of indignation went up from injured Cornwall. Appeal was made to the 
Admiralty, and an order issued by those in power that the treasure should be 
fished up again from the sea into which it had been cast, and replaced just 
where it had stood before. At the expense of a year's work with men and 
machinery the task was achieved, but the exquisite poise and balance of the 
Logan Stone was lost, and could never be restored to it again. 

Followine the coast westward, the traveller comes to Land's End, the 
Bolerium of the ancients, the most westerly point of England, — a wild, granite 
headland, forever wet with the Atlantic mists and the spray of the mighty 



24 



PICTURESQUE EUROPEAN SCENERY. 



waves that dash and are broken against it. Its extreme point is not over 
sixty feet in height, but the cliffs rise around it to a much greater elevation ; 
and separated from it by the water, but evidently part of the same rocky out- 
work, are isolated rocks of various and grotesque forms, — the Shark's Fin, 
the Armed Knight, Dr. Johnson's Head, and others. 

In clear weather the Scilly Islands, twenty-seven miles distant, may be 
distinguished on the western horizon. A tradition exists that these islands 
were once connected with the mainland by a tract of country called " the 
Lyonesse," where, according to Tennyson, King Arthur fell, when 

" All day long the noise of battle rolled 
Among the mountains by the wintry sea." 




LAND'S END. 



Spenser makes out this region as a part of fairy land ; but the chroniclers, 
who go into particulars, tell us that it contained a hundred and forty parish 
churches, and was swept away by a sudden eruption of the sea. 

About a mile back from the extreme point of Land's End is a little inn, 
which, with rustic humor, the landlord calls the "first and last" inn in Eng- 
land. A tablet on the side towards the sea indicates it as " the first," and 
another on the landward side as " the last." 

Standing on Land's End, and looking northward, the coast-line, curving 
into Whitesand Bay, ends to the eye with Cape Cornwall, which rises at 
its extremity into a precipitous cliff two hundred and thirty feet high. On 
the isthmus connecting this headland with the main line of the coast are the 
ruins of an old chapel, called " St. Helen's Oratory," and the traveller can- 
not fail to be impressed with the genuine devotion of the " Ages of Faith," 



PICTURESQUE EUROPEAN SCENERY. 



25 



who planted a church where we nowadays should establish either a life-saving 
station, or, mayhap, a shelter of some kind for the adventurous tourist. To 
the south from Cape Cornwall, nearly off the point of Land's End, is the Long- 
ship Light-house, rising from a rocky ledge of granite and slate. This light- 
house, oddly enough, was a work of private enterprise, and paid toll to its 
builder for a number of years. 

The most interesting mines to visit, and the most productive in all Corn- 
wall, are those close by the sea ; and in many cases submarine galleries run out 
for miles, in which, if the traveller has courage to venture for once where the 
miners work every day, he will hear above the noise of the engines, when 




CAPE CORNWALL. 



the coast is lashed by the tremendous swell of the Atlantic, the harsh grating 
of rocks rolling to and fro overhead in the bed of the sea. Not only are the 
levels driven out under the water ; in one instance a shaft was actually sunk 
through the sea at a distance of seven hundred and twenty feet from the 
shore. The upper portion of this shaft consisted of a caisson rising twelve feet 
from the surface of the water, and the pump-rod was carried along a stage or 
wherry erected upon piles. The miners worked at a depth of a hundred feet 
below the bay; the water drained through the roof, and the noise of the sea 
was incessant everywhere. This bold adventure, the only mine ever sunk in 
the sea, was abandoned after a few years, although it was extremely produc- 
tive, the expenses of carrying it on being so great as to render it un- 
profitable. 



26 PICTURESQUE EUROPEAN SCENERY. 

The Botallack Mine (see page 7) exhibits one of the most impressive com- 
binations of the power of art and the sublimity of nature that can be imagined. 
The tremendous crags and cliffs of slate that have for ages defied the violence 
of ocean, are broken up by the operations of the miner, and hung with his com- 
plicated machinery. One of the engines which drive the works was lowered 
two hundred feet over the cliff, to the place it now occupies ; another went 
down a hundred and fifty feet, was drawn up for repairs, and lowered again 
some years later. A remarkable diagonal shaft was sunk in 1858, running 
from just above the water's edge, in an oblique direction, out under the sea, and 
has been worked to great advantage. This shaft is eight feet wide and six 
feet high, sinking at about five degrees from the horizontal line, and though 
in some places it is very crooked and the angles are very sharp, the same 
inclination is maintained throughout its whole length, which is now nearly a 
half mile. 

Leading as they do a life exposed at every hour to the most fearful perils, 
the Cornish miners are a brave, resolute class of men. They have a certain 
share in the proceeds of their work, over and above their regular pay, and this 
cultivates the better qualities largely in them. They are proud of their land 
and its peculiarities, and as loyal to their own people as when in James II. 's 
time they were ready to march upon London to demand the release of Tre- 
lawney, one of the seven bishops whom the king committed to the Tower, 
and whose name is immortalized in the ballad, — 

"And shall they scorn Tre, Pol, and Pen? 
And shall Trelawney die? 
Then twenty thousand Cornishmen 
Will know the reason why." 

And now, having quite rounded the promontory which makes the west 
point of England, we turn east again, and find the first town of importance, 
St. Ives, on its beautiful bay, with the wide waters of the open ocean in the 
distance. The town has a fine pier, built by Smeaton in 1767, and a break- 
water was commenced to shut in the bay, but abandoned as too expensive a 
work. An old church stands close to the beach, and is sprinkled by spray in 
high winds. There are mines in the immediate neighborhood of the town, 
and, with the fisheries, they make it an industrious little place. As a picture, 
St. Ives is the very gem of the western coast, and has been said to resemble 
a Greek village, with its wonderful coloring of rocks, and sky, and sea. 






< 
m 




PICTURESQUE EUROPEAN SCENERY. 



29 



One more glimpse at the coast of Cornwall we will have between Tin- 
tagel and Boscastle, leaving behind us the ocean, and entering the scarcely less 
tumultuous waters of the Bristol Channel. The line of coast of this region is 
very remarkable and magnificent. The cliffs slope down to the shore in im- 
posing curves, forming inclined planes from a hundred to a hundred and fifty 
feet in length. They are masses of dark slate varied by white lines, which 
show, even at a distance, the contortions of the strata. 

From Tintagel to Boscastle is about three miles, the intermediate country 
resembling a natural terrace, bounded on the side towards the sea by the fine 
cliffs we have observed, and on the inland side by a range of hills. 




COAST BETWEEN TINTAGEL AND BOSCASTLE. 



Tintagel itself, in the foreground, celebrated as the most romantic scene 
in Cornwall, derives additional interest from the ruins of a castle of great 
antiquity, the reputed home of King Arthur. The headland strikingly illus- 
trates an action of the sea which tends to convert promontories into islands, 
consisting, as it does, of a peninsula, united to the coast by a neck of broken 
rocks, pierced by a long, dark cavern, or rather tunnel, which may be visited 
at low water. A hollow, commencing at the little village of Trevenna, opens 
to the sea in the rocky recess under Tintagel, and the stream which flows 
through it falls over the precipice in a cascade. The ruins of the castle are 
partly on the mainland and partly on the peninsula, separated by the deep 
chasm occasioned by the wearing away of the isthmus. They consist of dark, 
disintegrated walls, pierced by small square windows and arched doorways. 



3° 



PICTURESQUE EUROPEAN SCENERY. 



An ancient landing-place on the shore, called the Iron Gate, is yet marked by 
a massive bastion and gateway, which, it is believed, date from the time of the 
ancient Britons. 

No historic record whatever tells of the erection of this most interesting 
castle, but the tradition connecting Tintagel with Arthur, " the flower of kings," 
has every sanction which can commend it to our belief. In the mediaeval 
romances belonging to the cycle of Arthur, the name constantly occurs, with 
many descriptive particulars. In the Doomsday Book it is called Dunchine, 
the Castle of the Cleft ; soon after the Conquest it was the residence of the 
Earls of Cornwall ; later it became the property of the Crown, and was some- 
times used as a prison, a Lord Mayor of London having been sent thither, in 




THE AVON AT BRISTOL. 



whose " perpetual penitentiary " it may be doubted if the Arthurian legends 
afforded much solace ; and, finally, in Queen Elizabeth's time it was left to fall 
into ruin. 

The most important business centre in the neighborhood of the Bristol 
Channel is Bristol, on the Avon, a few miles from the river's mouth. The 
illustration represents its suburb, Clifton, extending along the right bank of the 
little river the white fa ades of its elegant residences. On the cliffs above 
stand the two towers of a suspension-bridge, built about 1850, and once span- 
ning the river at a height of two hundred and forty-five feet above the water. 
The bridge itself was carried away by a hurricane, and the remaining towers 
add the picturesque effect of a ruin to the graceful landscape. 



PICTURESQUE EUROPEAN SCENERY. 



31 



Eight miles below Bristol the 
Avon falls into the wide Severn, 
and a light-house, built on a long 
and narrow ledge of roeks, indicates 
the point of confluence of the two 
rivers. 

Across the Severn lies Mon- 
mouthshire, and the traveller enter- 
ing this county believes himself in 
Wales, and is surprised on looking 
at the map to find that Monmouth- 
shire is part of England. This or- 
dering, however, dates only from the 
time of Henry VIII., before whose 
reign the county was an integral part 
of South Wales, in history and inter- 
est perfectly identical with it. Sub- 
sequent to that era it has still been, 
in many respects, more intimately 
associated with Wales than with Eng-- 
land ; and in the aspect of the coun- 
try, and in the language and habits 
of the people, it has all the charac- 
teristics of the Principality. 

The county is full of Roman 
ruins, memorials of the three hun- 
dred and thirty years' occupation of 
those masters of the ancient world, 
Saxon and Norman relics, numerous 
castles, castellated mansions, and ec- 
clesiastical edifices ; being among the 
most picturesque ruins in the king- 
dom. 

In the valley beneath runs an- 
other railway, following the little 
river Ebbw (pronounced Eb-bo) to the sea, and by this route we may come 




32 



PICTURESQUE EUROPEAN SCENERY. 



down to Newport, at the mouth of the Usk, one of the most important towns 
in the county. A very few years have advanced this place from an insignifi- 
cant village into a populous and thriving commercial centre, owing to the 
inexhaustible mineral wealth of the surrounding district, and the facilities of 
transportation offered by the numerous canals and railways of the region. 

It is coal which has made the fortune of Newport. Everybody deals in 
it, and finds the business profitable. The city claims high antiquity, being 
founded by the Romans in connection with their station at Caerleon. 

Our first town really in the Principality is Milford, situated on Milford 
Haven, near the western extremity of Wales. The brief history of this place 
is an extraordinary instance of great and rapid vicissitudes. The town is of 
recent origin, having been commenced in 1790 by Mr. Charles Greville, the 




MILFORD. 



proprietor, under the sanction of an Act of Parliament. A large and populous 
town quickly arose ; a dock-yard was constructed for building ships of war ; 
a line of mail-coaches and packets daily visited the town ; a company engaged 
in the South-Sea whale-fishery selected it as the port for their vessels ; 
laborers of all classes found constant and remunerative employment, and 
money to a great amount was circulated. 

But within a few years these springs of prosperity failed. The dock- 
yard was removed four miles farther from the open sea, the whalers sought 
other ports, the line of post-office communication was diverted, much property 
was rendered unproductive, and the interests of the town declined as rapidly 



< 



73 

o 



o 

I 

o 

z 

D 




PICTURESQUE EUROPEAN SCENERY. 



35 



as they had advanced A renewal of prosperity, however, which promises to 
be lasting, has resulted from the many advantages which the place enjoys. 

The traveller passes through the lovely valley of Nant Gwynant, or the 
Vale of the Waters. All through the valley runs an excellent road, over- 
looking Lake Gwynant, and, with its fertile meadows on one hand and lux- 
uriant woods on the other, unfolds scenes of exquisite beauty whose impression 
is greatly heightened by their contrast with the sublimer features of the 
mountain landscape amidst which they are found. 

Llyn Gwynant is a lovely lake about a mile long and a quarter of a 
mile in breadth. Beyond this, the road runs by the river through a narrow, 
wooded valley, till it reaches a second lake, smaller, but scarcely less beautiful. 
Still following the river, the road passes close under a remarkable rock, known 




LLYN GWYNANT AND MERLIN'S FORT. 



as Merlin's Fort, which is the scene of many wondrous traditions concerning 
the old magician. 

The great feature of the English metropolis, to which we now turn, is 
its chain of parks, — Hyde Park, the Green, and St. James's, which touch at the 
angles, and may be regarded as forming part of a space of uninterrupted 
pleasure-ground. Each of them has its peculiar character. St. James's, lying 
among palaces, and from an early period surrounded by the fashionable resi- 
dences of the West End, is the courtier ; a few steps from the main avenues, 
and the visitor loses himself in exquisite sylvan retreats, in which he can scarcely 
believe himself so near the paved streets and stone buildings of mighty London. 



36 



PICTURESQUE EUROPEAN SCENERY. 



All the London parks, except Kensington, which has preserved the sym- 
metrical arrangement in which Queen Anne delighted, are laid out with great 
simplicity, in what is called the English style : a natural or artificial stream, 
on which light skiffs are sailing about ; a rustic pavilion here and there ; tall 
and venerable trees standing quite apart from one another ; flowers and orna- 
mental plants on the edges and in groups ; but, above all, extensive lawns, of 
which the public is allowed the fullest enjoyment. If the turf grows worn 




WEST WYCOMBE PARK. 



in places, little portable fences are set up, which are always respected, and 
the soft, moist climate of England, combined with the gardener's care, soon 
restores the verdant velvet. 

Kensington Gardens are properly a portion of Hyde Park. The ground 
was originally purchased by William III., then laid out by Queen Anne, and 




KENSINGTON GARDENS. LONDON. 



PICTURESQUE EUROPEAN SCENERY. 



39 



a court end gradually gathered about them. Nowhere are to be seen more 
aged and venerable trees than those in Kensington Gardens, and their solitary 
seclusion has a look of the last century. 

Of all the places of out-of-door resort in the neighborhood of London, 
Kew is by far the most important and frequented. It is some six or seven 
miles from Charing Cross, and reached both by rail and steamboat. " It is 
the finest botanic garden in the world," says a French author; and an English 
writer says : " The middle classes have here, and strictly as their own property, 




BRIDGE IN WEST WILTON PARK. 

one of the most expensive of modern refinements, and one of the most 
delightful, — a Winter Garden. It is not called so," he adds ; " it was not in 
any way formed with such an object ; but it is not the less true, and it happens 
thus : an immense proportion of the collection of plants requires either to be 
grown altogether or to be occasionally sheltered in glass houses ; consequently 
there are some twenty of these structures at Kew, most of them handsome, 
some very large, and one, the Palm-House, so large and splendid that it forms 
in itself a magnificent Winter Garden. 



4o 



PICTURESQUE EUROPEAN SCENERY. 




ST. JAMES'S PARK. LONDON. 



' You go in by one of the most beautiful entrances that have been erected 
in modern times, whether we regard the effect of the whole design, or the 



PICTURESQUE EUROPEAN SCENERY. 



41 



taste shown in the separate details. There is no unlocking of a dark door; 
you walk in freely. Turn to the left, you wander amid the more secluded 
scenery of the old gardens, until you reach the hot-houses and the adjacent 
beds. Or walk straight forward along the bold, broad promenade, immediately 
after you enter ; visit the conservatory on your right, and at the end of this 
promenade turn to the left, and ramble along the still finer avenue adorned 




CASCADES. VIRGINIA WATER. 

on either side by flower-beds, lawns, and shrubberies, and terminated by the 
great Palm-House itself. The student is free to enjoy access to all these 
daily increasing stores, and every person is free to enjoy the pleasure which 
the view of them cannot fail to confer." 

The Gardens of Kew are divided into two distinct sections, — the Botanic 
Garden, properly so called, and the pleasure-garden, or Arboretum. Both are 
laid out in the English style, but in the Botanic Garden the straight line 
and the semicircle are not absolutely banished. Here is a large pond, and 
here are the green-houses and museums. Only the great Palm-House, or 
Winter Garden, is situated in the Arboretum. 

The invention of the hot-house is, we may say, the last refinement of 
the gardener's art. Without the aid of these enclosed and covered parterres, 



42 



PICTURESQUE EUROPEAN SCENERY. 



with diaphanous walls, we could cultivate in each climate only the flora proper 
to that climate, or to those very nearly resembling it. The beautiful plants 
of tropical and sub-tropical zones, and those of the southern hemisphere, would 
be known to us only by description, and by the herbaria of botanic travellers. 

It was not until the sixteenth, or, possibly, the fifteenth century, that any 
use was made of glass on a large scale, and these first hot-houses were 
orangeries, in which orange, laurel, and myrtle trees were set for the winter, 
or forcing-houses, to bring forward by artificial heat the vegetables and fruits 
of summer. But with the explorations of the Portuguese, the Spaniards, the 




PALM-HOUSE 



Dutch, and the Genoese, came home to English gardeners some notion of 
the vegetable marvels of the tropics, and the desire sprung up to lodge these 
foreign wonders amid conditions that would secure their complete development 
in so unfamiliar a climate. 

Not until the beginning of the present century, however, has a taste for 
culture under glass really spread itself thoroughly among the higher classes 
of Europe, and been carried to a great height of luxury, especially in England 
and in Germany. The hot-houses of Kew, now twenty-one in number, are 
among the finest in the world. The largest of them is four hundred and 
eighty-two feet in length, and covers an acre and two thirds of ground. This 
is a temperate house, and has its roof removed during the summer. It is 
devoted to the flora of the sub-tropical and temperate regions of the southern 
hemisphere. 

The great Palm-House, though not as large, is more remarkable. It 
consists, as will be observed, of a centre and two wings ; the former, a hun- 



PICTURESQUE EUROPEAN SCENERY. 



43 




dred feet wide and sixty-six high ; the lat- 
ter, fifty feet wide and thirty high, and 
the length of the whole three hundred and 
sixty-two feet. It is heated by hot water 
which circulates in pipes, of which the 
whole length is twenty-four thousand feet. 
A gallery runs round the lofty central 
portion, which is reached by a very ele- 
gant circular staircase of iron, looking almost as light as the climbing plants 
which festoon it, adorning it, in their season, with some of the most superb 
of all known flowers. The color of the glass is an interesting novelty. The 
object desired was to admit all possible light, but to exclude the fiercest of 
the heat rays. It had been found by experiment that these heat rays alone 
caused the injury palms were found to suffer when exposed unshaded under 
glass, and the same method determined that a pale-yellowish shade in the 



44 PICTURESQUE EUROPEAN SCENERY. 

glass was that which most effectually debarred passage to these heat rays of 
highest temperature. Palms and plantains, banians, the Caffre bread-tree, the 
papyrus, and countless other splendid strangers from the tropics, adorn this 
great hot-house. 

Further up the river is Richmond, on the south bank, which rises behind 
the village into Richmond Hill. From this spot, a beautiful view of the river 
gives the traveller an entirely new idea of Father Thames. All the way 
through London it is the stream of crowded traffic, and too frequently its 
waters are muddy and unsightly ; but higher up, the old river-god becomes 
the patron of elegance, ease, and gayety. Seen from Richmond Hill, the 
Thames is the fairest feature of a most fair landscape. The winding river 
makes its gentle way through a wide extent of dark-green waving woods ; 
through openings here and there we catch a glimpse of corn-field, meadow, 
and rural homestead ; gray church-towers dot the distance, and give a tone of 
tranquillity and dignity to the landscape. In these woody retreats, one under- 
stands what is meant by " green England," and would linger there for hours 
with no companion save the tranquil deer or the timorous rabbit. Sir Walter 
Scott has a paragraph in his "Heart of Mid-Lothian" well describing this 
charming scene. "They paused for a moment," he says, "on the brow of the 
hill, to gaze on the unrivalled landscape which it presented. A huge sea of 
verdure, with crossing and intersecting promontories of massive and tufted 
groves, was tenanted by numberless flocks and herds which seemed to wander 
unrestrained through the rich pastures. The Thames, here turreted with 
villas, and there garlanded with forests, moved on slowly and placidly, like the 
mighty monarch of the scene, to whom all its other beauties were but acces- 
sories, and bore on his bosom a hundred barks and skiffs, whose white sails 
and gayly fluttering pennons gave life to the whole." 



NORWAY. 




ROM England to Norway seems an abrupt transition, but may 
we not by way of contrast hail with pleasure the keen, fresh 
wind of northern seas, and the wild landscape, where Nature- 
has done everything and man nothing, and a certain air of 
primitive existence reigns, as if one were carried back to the 
days when the Vikings were, for the moment, the greatest and 
most dreaded power in Europe ? 

The scenery of Norway is absolutely peculiar. A long, nar- 
row country, with a mountain chain extending its entire length, 
and throwing out lateral spurs, especially towards the west, its 
sea-coast is one of the most deeply indented in the world, its val- 
leys ending in arms of the sea, which wind far in among the mountains, and 
are often extremely narrow, while the rocky walls which define them rise 
sheer two or three thousand feet above the level of the water. 

Following up the fiords, we come to the dalene, or mountain valleys. 
Like the fiords, these also are deep and narrow ; some of them are a hundred 
miles in length ; many of them are extremely fertile, and contain numerous 
farms. Each valley has its river, in some cases its lake, and the various 
affluents to the main stream dash over the walls of the valley in cascades 
of more or less importance, as the mountain barrier is of greater or less 
height. Along the rivers grow the famous forests of Norway ; the annual 
revenue from firewood being five million dollars. Oak, beech, ash, poplar, and 
willow are found in varying proportions ; the spruce fir is, however, the 
principal tree in the southern part of the country, replaced towards the Arctic 
circle by the Scotch fir. The luxuriance of flowers is now and then remark- 



4 6 



PICTURESQUE EUROPEAN SCENERY 



able. It is not uncommon to come upon magnificent banks of pansies, ex- 
tending over at least a hundred square yards, in all their tri-colored splendor, 
filling the atmosphere far around them with delicious perfume. 

About a hundred and fifty miles north of Christiansand is the great cata- 
ract, the Riukan Fos, represented on the opposite page. It is scarcely need- 
ful to add anything to the artist's faithful representation of this magnificent 
scene. From below rises a white cloud of spray, which gives the cataract 
its name, the "reeking," or riukan falls. The volume of water, — a lake of 




' J.Cfl UCMAflD, 



LAZARETTO. 



CHRISTIANSAND. 



considerable size, — the height from which it is precipitated, over nine hun- 
dred feet, and, above all, the wonderful walls of rock which enclose it, make 
a scene which can never be forgotten, and has no mate in the world. Not 
alone is the eye impressed with the grandeur of this picture, but the ear 
discerns something quite peculiar and memorable. The roar and tumult of 
so vast a cataract is not lacking, but it is not the chaotic and confused mass 
of sound usual to a mighty waterfall. The Riukan Fos strikes six distinct 
blows with its fall, followed by a seventh louder than the rest, which makes 
the whole mass of water rebound into the air, nearly half-way up the height 
of the cataract, as though the waters were filling some enormous cave, and 
at a given moment, having over-filled it, made their tumultuous escape. 




THE RIUKAN FALLS. 



PICTURESQUE EUROPEAN SCENERY. 



49 



In strongest contrast to this scene 
of wild grandeur, is the tranquil beauty of 
the Fladal, — the valley of the Flaa (see 
page 51), with its quiet blue waters, lying- 
smooth and unruffled in its frame of moun- 
tains. 

To the west of the Fladal, and very 
near the sea, is the second famous Nor- 
wegian waterfall, the Voring Fos. The 
torrent forming this fall flows from the 
melting snows of the neighboring moun- 
tains, and traverses a moor through which 
it has cut a gully some two hundred feet 
deep, then, coming to a rocky wall, in 
which it either finds or makes a per- 
pendicular fissure, pitches down in a foam- 
ing mass, into a narrow gorge of fearful 
depth. Looking over from a ledge of 
rock near the top, the effect is almost 
terrific; far below, a thousand feet or 
more, lies the milky pool, into which the 
torrent thunders with crashing violence. 
There is no beauty nor grace about it, as 
there is to nearly all the very high water- 
falls of the world ; it is but a great mass 
of water driving downwards, an amazing 
example of the power of gravitation. 

A few miles further west we reach 
the Naero Fiord (page 50), well named, 
for "narrow" indeed it is. It is an ir- 
regular sea-filled gorge, between perpen- 
dicular rocks, rising to a height of five 
thousand feet. Far above extend moun- 
tain pasture-lands, and there are chalets 
perched here and there, like those of the 
Alps. In winter it is said that fearful avalanches roll down from 




the- 



se 



heights 



5o 



PICTURESQUE EUROPEAN SCENERY. 



and plunge hissing into the fiord, and that more than once an ill-fated bark 
has been annihilated by this thunderbolt of the mountains. Here and there 
on the water's edge one may observe a church (see page 53), whose parish 
extends for miles away, and whose parishioners come by boat from their remote 
homes. Nothing can be more picturesque than the sight, on a quiet Sunday, 



X* 




THE NAERO FIORD. 



of a procession of boats creeping slowly and silently churchward, the white 
caps and red dresses of the women contrasting with the dark blue water ol 
the fiord and the sombre green of the surrounding hills. 

Grandest of all the Norwegian scenery, however, is the Romsdal (see page 
55), a valley extending far inland, from its port and fiord of Veblungsnaeset, 
and combining in itself more of the elements of beauty and of savage grandeur 



H 
i 
m 



> 
> 




PICTURESQUE EUROPEAN SCENERY. 



53 



than any valley in Europe, not excepting the most famous among the Alps. 
It is distinguished by the abundance and variety of its cascades, the richness 
of its carpet of green turf, the transparent color of the stream which traverses 
it, and lastly, by the bold outline of its mountains. 




THE CHURCH AT BAKKE. 



On the left of the valley the Romsdal Horn, a peak of extraordinary steep- 
ness, springs to the height of four thousand feet, like a huge shattered steeple, 
with other ragged cones surrounding it. Opposite, a mighty wall of rock 
rises directly from the road, varying from one to two thousand feet in height. 
In some parts of this wall great scars are visible, where huge masses have scaled 
off and thundered down ; these fragments may be seen below cumbering the 
river-bed, and forcing its waters to roar and foam through the narrow channels 



54 



PICTURESQUE EUROPEAN SCENERY. 



left between them. Above these scars an overhanging cornice may usually 
be seen, the upper surface from which the fragment was detached. The 
heap of massive ruins below, and the scar above, with its overhanging cor- 
nice, have a tendency to prevent the observant traveller from seating himself 
anywhere along beneath this wall, lest another crash should occur at a 
moment unfortunate for himself. 




VEBLUNGSNAESET. 



There is much legendary interest attached to the Romsdal. A certain 
range of fantastic, crenellated, rocky peaks, seen from Veblungsnaeset, the 
harbor at the mouth of the fiord, are said to be sorcerers, who, seeking to 
prevent St. Olaf from penetrating into this valley, in order to introduce 
Christianity into it, were changed into stone by the devout monarch. 

All this region was once a sort of Odinic Olympus ; here was the abode 
of the Scandinavian divinities, and long after the rest of the country had sub- 
mitted to the new faith, this valley held out stoutly for the religion of its 
forefathers. 

The whole western coast of Norway, in fact, has its poetic associations ; 
many points have been sung in imperishable verse by Tegner, the modern 
bard of Sweden. We are in the country of Frithiof and Ingeborg, whose 
story has inspired the poet with some of his finest verses. 



H 
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DENMARK 



ROM Norway to Denmark is but an easy 
flight for the imagination, although it 
be many weary leagues of stormy sea to the 
good ship ploughing her way down Skager Rack and Categat and Sund, 
until the beautiful harbor of Copenhagen is attained, and the handsome city 
of one hundred and fifty thousand souls, the metropolis of the future Scan- 
dinavian empire, lies before us. 

In all quarters of the city the houses arc admirable. Some are Gothic^ 
many are modern ; they are built of Danish brick, or of stone brought from 
Germany. The Exchange is one of the most picturesque of the public build- 
ings of Copenhagen. It has a curious tower covered with lead, from which 



5* 



PICTURESQUE EUROPEAN SCENERY. 



springs a spire composed of the twisted tails of four dragons, whose heads 
lie on the tower roof, looking out to the four points of the compass. 

The Old Palace of Rosenborg, near the northern gate of the city, is 
believed to be the work of Inigo Jones, the famous English architect, who 




/Iftnn, c-:c,L 



THE PALACE OF ROSENBORG. 



is known to have been in Denmark at the time it was built, namely, the year 
1604. This at least is certain, that its erection was due to Christian IV., that 
rival of Gustavus Adolphus, that hero by land and sea, that enemy of the 
House of Austria, that defender of the Reformation, that statesman, that cap- 
tain, that admiral, that poet in brick and stone. This rude soldier was like 
a Caliph of Bagdad in his love of architecture, and in the magnificent struc- 
tures that he left behind him. 



IMf - i I,! I l l I 

Tllllll 

111 
1 11 

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PICTURESQUE EUROPEAN SCENERY. 



61 



The Palace is an irregular structure of red brick, in the Gothic style, with 
high pointed roof, and four unequal towers. It is now used as an historical 
museum, and contains, hall after hall, relics of all the kings of Denmark, from 
Christian IV. down to Frederick VII. The collection of silver cups and 




AMAC MARKET AND HOUSE OF DIVECKE. 

flagons of exquisite workmanship is very remarkable ; so, also, is the treasure 
of Venetian glass, of which eight hundred pieces were sent by one doge to 
Frederick IV. The hall of the Knights in the third story of the palace is a 
magnificent apartment : it is the coronation hall of the Danish kings. The 



62 



PICTURESQUE EUROPEAN SCENERY. 



throne is surrounded by three silver lions, the armorial bearings of Denmark, 
understood to represent the Great Belt, the Little Belt, and the Sund. 

From the Old Palace of the kings to the home of a king's favorite is 
a natural transition. In the Amac Market stands the house of Divecke, a 
gabled Renaissance building erected in 1616. Divecke was the pretty daughter 
of a market-woman from Amsterdam, Siegbrit by name. The girl won the 
king's affection, which is not a new incident in royal story ; but the peculiarity 
of this romance is that her mother, the market-woman, became the king's 
councillor and chief adviser ; " Siegbrit the prime minister," the history of the 
time calls her. 





B»£.*l&i* 



CHATEAU OF EGESKOW. 



CHATEAU OF LOVENBORG 



Twenty miles north of Copenhagen is Fredericksborg, the great palace, 
the Versailles, one may say, of the Danish kings. Like a wounded hero of 
the north it still stands, though ravaged by fire about the year i860. We 
present an illustration of the castle as seen from the courtyard. 

This also is the work of Christian IV., and was built on three little islands 
in a lake connected by bridges, and covered to the water's edge, so that the 
palace seems to rise from the water like a chateau of fairy-land. It is a 
colossal edifice, and of most capricious variety in respect to architecture. Its 
walls are in part brick, in part stone ; its facades and towers, here Greek, 
there Gothic ; while the Scandinavian imagination glitters about every por- 
tion of the vast structure, from statues and niches, arched passage-ways and 
pillars of black Norway marble, and bas-reliefs, to the general effect of mingled 
color, dark and brilliant, which is reflected beneath the blue sky in the green 
waters of the lake. 



PICTURESQUE EUROPEAN SCENERY. 



65 



The gardens are laid out in the French style, and are very extensive; but 
the royal forest, with its magnificent avenues of beech-trees, may rival the 
finest in all Europe. 

This castle was the favorite home of Christian IV. Fetes and banquets 
of all kinds, by day and night, succeeded each other in the spacious halls and 
superb pleasure-grounds, and were graced by the beauty and gentleness of 
Christine Munch, whom the king, by a morganatic marriage, made his wife. 




CHATEAU OF GLORUP. 



To all the higher classes there is, in Denmark, a great charm in country 
life. It is the land of chateaux, like those represented on this and the pre- 
ceding page, some of which are of great beauty. Here they impress you by 
their grandeur, there you are charmed by their dainty elegance. Some 
chateaux are feudal citadels with menacing donjons ; others are hunting-lodges, 
in the heart of the deep woods ; others are like a swan's nest among the 
reeds ; others are like Venetian palaces, which mirror their sculptured bridges 
in the deep-green water of the lagoons. In a few the most exquisite taste, 
without relinquishing its heritage of the past, has united it to the present by 
the miracles of modern comfort and the magic of modern art. 




POLAND. 



LTHOUGH no longer existing as an inde- 
pendent state, Poland retains a character, 
perhaps, more individual and peculiar than any other country in Europe, and 
is no more likely to be assimilated and lost in the great nation of Russia, than 
are the Jews or the Gypsies in the various countries where for the moment 
they make their home. 

Of the great kingdom which was ruled for nearly two centuries by the 
illustrious House of Jagellon, only that portion which fell to Russia at the time 
of the partition is now called by the name of Poland : this portion, however, 
contains the capital, and numbers in its five million inhabitants all the old, 
heroic names which have given the unhappy little country a world-wide fame. 



PICTURESQUE EUROPEAN SCENERY. 



67 



Warsaw is a city nearly fourteen miles in circumference, having a population 
of about a hundred and fifty thousand persons. It has one long, broad street, 
and many narrow ones lying at right angles to the main thoroughfare. The 
city, diversified by many gardens and orchards, extends partly over a plain, 
partly upon a plateau which rises along the shore of the Vistula, and, thanks 
to the wide plains and the river, enjoys fresh air and a healthful climate. 




CHATEAU OF LAZIENSKI. 



Warsaw, notwithstanding its celebrity, is far from meeting our ideas of 
the splendor suited for a capital. At every step one sees remnants of barbar- 
ism ; perhaps the most painful contrast which strikes the eye is that existing 
between the splendid churches and the poor wooden houses in which a 
majority of the inhabitants reside. 

Warsaw contains many promenades and places of public out-of-door resort. 
Its finest avenue is the Belvedere, bordered for more than a mile by a triple 
row of chestnut-trees. It leads from the city to the chateau of Lazienski, rep- 
resented above, and is thronged during the fine weather by the inhabitants. 



68 



PICTURESQUE EUROPEAN SCENERY. 



This palace served as the residence of the emperor Nicholas I., whenever 
he came to Warsaw. John III. presented it to Stanislas Lubomirski, and 
this noble neglected it utterly. Stanislas Augustus bought it back, erected 
a summer chateau, and laid out ornamental grounds of vast extent, decorating 
them with fountains and groups of statuary in the fashion of that day. 

The place as it now exists is as beautiful as fairy-land. The chateau 
stands between two lakes; to one of its wings a church has been added, 




l >3?- '^T^^i-i !&&* 



PARK OF LAZIENSKI. 



built in 1846, and dedicated to Alexander Newski. All along the side of the 
chateau a marble staircase descends into the lake. The first story of the 
building consists entirely of superb reception-rooms, of which the finest is a 
long salon, with windows opening each side upon the water. It contains also 
a splendid picture gallery, and a white marble Venus of great beauty. The 
theatre of the chateau is built upon an island in the lake, in front of the main 
structure, and the stage is separated by a canal from the great audience 
room, which will accommodate fifteen hundred persons. 










SPAIN. 



CASTILIAN proverb asserts that "when 
you have said Spain you have said 
everything ; " and, possibly, with the exception 
of Italy, it is one of the most interesting regions 
in the world. It is a country fertile in romantic 
associations, and remarkable in national character- 
istics. Were there no other distinguishing cir- 
cumstance in its long record than that it has 
been twice, or rather thrice, almost completely in 
the military possession of foreign invaders, and 
yet has ultimately triumphed over its enemies, 
this alone would give to its history a peculiar 
attraction. Twice has Spain been the debatable 
land between Europe and Africa. Rome and Carthage contended for empire 
on its soil, and when the Saracens made their desperate effort for the posses- 
sion of Christendom, Spain was one of the advanced positions on which they 
seized. 









/ 



7° 



PICTURESQUE EUROPEAN SCENERY. 



The Rock of Gibraltar forms the southwestern extremity of the province 
of Andalusia. Though for many years this celebrated fortress was the pride 
and glory of Spain, the Spaniard of to-day scowls as he beholds the red cross 
of St. George flying from the fortifications, and sighs that the most impregna- 
ble fortress in the world is in the permanent possession of a foreign nation. 




THE ROCK OF GIBRALTAR. 



Situated, with but one exception, upon the most southerly extremity of 
Europe, the Rock of Gibraltar commands the whole of the western coast 
of Spain, comprising nearly two thirds of the coast-line of the country. This 
rock rises abruptly on its northern side (a view of which we present) to a 
height of thirteen hundred feet above the level of the sea. Tts immense size 



PICTURESQUE EUROPEAN SCENERY. 71 

is a source of astonishment to the beholder. Its height and extent must be 
seen to be fully appreciated. From the east, seen from the Atlantic, it has 
the appearance of a great lion, with its head turned towards the land. The 
approaches from the sea and from the land bristle with guns, and the fortress 
has been pronounced by the most skilled engineers to be impregnable by 
assault. Famine, against which the British government amply provides, would 
be the only possible method by which this fortress could be forced to sur- 
render. The rock is perforated by numerous natural caverns, which have 
been artificially enlarged and made subservient to the purpose for which the 
rock is used. These corridors are perforated with port-holes, which are so 
arranged as to cover any attack by sea or land. As the steamer approaches 
nearer the rock, we notice that the rock is covered with rich and abundant 
vegetation, and the captain informs us that it is so even in mid-winter. On 
reaching the landing-place, one is astonished at the activity of the town of 
Gibraltar. As we pass along the streets towards our hotel, we see persons 
of various nations, who seem to be busy — a great contrast to some of the 
Spanish towns which we shall have occasion to visit. You enter the city 
through a large square, and find yourself in the principal street of the city of 
Gibraltar. A quaint and picturesque street it is ; some of the shops are 
elegant, while others are old-fashioned and dilapidated. The inhabitants are 
as varied and picturesque in their costume as the architecture of the city. 
The jaunty, red-coated English soldier walks stiffly along the street, eying 
with contempt the swarthy Spaniard. The men of Fez or Tangier, in their 
rich garments interwoven with gold, pass the delicate forms of the Andalusian 
girls, or are jostled by the portly wives of English soldiers. The turbaned 
Moor, the handsome Greek, the Jew from Africa, meet and pass each other 
constantly. 

Gibraltar is not a magnificent city; the houses are neither large nor 
elegant, and the every-day life of the British colony has done away with the 
spirit of Spanish-Moorish romance. The Park offers some fine views, as, in 
fact, what part of Gibraltar does not ; but if one would have the finest pros- 
pect, let him ascend to the signal station which stands on the highest point 
of the rock and from which, as from the clouds, one enjoys with delight the 
imposing and magnificent panorama. 

From this bare ridge are seen to the southward, on the opposite side of 
the Straits, the undulating shores of Africa, with the Abyla of the ancients 



72 PICTURESQUE EUROPEAN SCENERY. 

lifting its hoary and generally cloud-capped head high in air. To the east, 
the Mediterranean stretches out in boundless prospect; its calm waters lie 
as if in sleep, and the white sails of the little craft that skim its surface 
appear like specks of foam. On the northern side rise the mountains 
of Granada, the Alpuxarras and the Sierra Nevada, their lofty summits 
covered with snow, or buried in thick clouds. To the west, the Bay of 
Gibraltar lies beneath our feet; on the opposite side stands the town of 
Algeziras, and behind it rise the mountains which form a part of the Granada 
chain. 

After leaving Gibraltar, we proceed to Seville, once the capital of Spain 
under the rule of the Goths. It is a quaint and old-fashioned town, although 
a spirit of enterprise has within the past few years converted some of the 
old and narrow streets into magnificent thoroughfares. The ancient walls, 
built at the time of the Moorish occupation, still surround the city, and add 
much to its ancient and picturesque appearance. Well has Byron said, — 

" Fair is proud Seville ; let her country boast 
Her strength, her wealth, her site of ancient days ; " 

and the Sevillians are proud of the old proverb: "Who has not seen Seville 
has not seen a marvel." The history of the city is full of interest, and rich 
with the ancient lore and romance of Spain. 

Let us visit the Alcazar, one of the finest palaces that remains in Spain. 
It is supposed to have been built near the close of the twelfth century, and it 
is believed that the same workmen who had been engaged on the Alhambra 
were employed to complete it. In after years it received additions from Pedro, 
called " the Cruel ; " and Charles V. did his best to spoil its architecture, 
as he did that of the Alhambra. His additions were made in the Greco- 
Roman style, which contrasted poorly with the pure Moorish design of his 
predecessor. 

One of the most beautiful apartments in the Alcazar is the " Hall of the 
Ambassadors." It is in the Moorish style of architecture, rich with delicate 
lacework ornamentation, and glorious in its colors. The view which we 
present gives a far better idea of it than words can afford. This room has 
various romantic legends connected with it, and with that monster of cruelty, 
Don Pedro. In this hall tradition asserts that Pedro caused his brother, 
Don Fadrique, with all his retinue, to be assassinated ; and stains are still 



PICTURESQUE EUROPEAN SCENERY. 



73 



shown on the floor of the room which arc said to be those of human blood. 
Here also Pedro received one of the kings of Granada, and after having 
treated him apparently with the utmost kindness and consideration, murdered 
him with his own hands, in order, it is said, to obtain the costly and precious 
jewels with which he was adorned. 




HALL OF THE AMBASSADORS, SEVILLE. 

Soon after the death of Mohammed, the Arabs burst forth from their 
peninsula with a fury compated to which that of the Huns and Vandals was 
tame. Throughout the earth, in the space of little over half a century, they 
bore the victorious standard of the Prophet over realms as extensive as had 
required the eagles of Rome .to traverse in four centuries. The whole of 
Spain, with the exception of Biscay and the Asturias, fell into their hands ; 



74 



PICTURESQUE EUROPEAN SCENERY. 



and had not Charles Martel, on the field of Tours, placed a check on their 
ambitious designs, undoubtedly the countries bordered by the Mediterranean 







Mm:M : ^M 



*%fcSapM>?\ l^^T&i 



, x r~7~*yy*t.. 






~y^t^ 






GENERAL VIEW OF THE ALHAMBRA. 



would have been theirs, and the Moslem dream of universal conquest, so 
long looked forward to and so devoutly prayed for, would have been realized. 



PICTURESQUE EUROPEAN SCENERY. 75 

The situation of Granada is one of surpassing- loveliness ; to the west 
of it stretches the celebrated Vega, a beautiful verdant plain, dotted here 
and there with white hamlets and farm-houses. This plain has probably 
been the scene of more romantic and valiant exploits than any other piece of 
ground' of its size in the world ; its broad expanse of green is watered by the 
river Xenil, and numberless springs keep constantly verdant its shrubs and 
trees. The poorest houses which are scattered over its surface still bear 
marks of arabesques and tasteful decoration, which was so distinguishing a 
mark of the Moors. One writer likens the houses to rows of pearls set in 
an emerald cup. The hills which surround the Vega are crowned on their 
summits with perpetual snow, from which cool springs continually issue, and 
run down the mountain sides. On the slopes of the hills dismantled watch- 
towers lift their dilapidated heads, and remind us of the thousand years of 
strife and bloodshed which they have witnessed. Near the city lie orchards, 
gardens, groves, and vineyards. 

An Arab poet says : " Granada has not its like in the world. Neither 
Cairo, nor Damascus, nor Bagdad, can compete with it. To give an idea of 
its excellence, we must compare it to a beautiful bride of whose dowry those 
cities should form a part." 

In the year a. d. 1238, Mohammed al Hamar, a prince noted for the gen- 
erosity of his nature and his prowess in battle, established his court in the 
city of Granada. Ten years had passed since he had assisted Ferdinand in 
the reduction of Seville, and he, then being in the height of his glory, laid 
the foundations of the Alhambra ; and it was his intention to erect a monu- 
ment, in order that the generations which came after him should know how 
great had been the riches and the power of the kingdom of Granada. Every 
day a portion of his time was passed among the architects and masons who 
were employed in the construction of the buildine. 

The accompanying view of the Alhambra represents the palace from the 
most picturesque point of view. The hill before us, on which is situated the 
Alhambra, palace and fortress, rises between the rivers Genii and Darro, to 
the height of two hundred feet. In very ancient times this hill was crowned 
by a fortress which was surrounded by a low wall called Kassabah al Hamra, 
or the red fortress, from the color of the soil of which the hill is composed ; 
and the present building received its name, not from its founder, but from the 
old fortress. 



76 



PICTURESQUE EUROPEAN SCENERY. 



Near the entrance the visitor beholds at once the various rooms and 




COURT OF THE LIONS. 



courts of the Alhambra. Directly before him rises the lofty tower of 
Comares ; to the left is the Torre de la Vela. To the right is the garden 




PASS OF THE DESPENAPEROS. 



PICTURESQUE EUROPEAN SCENERY. 79 

and tower of the Lindaraja, and in front is the Court of the Lions. Every- 
thing about the Court of the Lions is in the most exquisite taste, and the 
designs and workmanship are of the highest order. The clustering columns 
which surround it are extremely light in appearance, — so light that they seem 
to be possessed of no stability ; yet the ruthless hand of worse than neglect, 
during four centuries, has not in the slightest degree injured this " fair piece of 
filigree." Its beauty is entrancing, even here in the Alhambra ; the fancy dis- 
played in the " Arabian Nights " could not imagine a scene of more perfect 
loveliness than this court displays, with its mosaic pavement, its balconies and 
galleries sustained by slender alabaster columns, its corridors and walls adorned 
with gold, silver, and purple. 

The fountain is supported on twelve rude figures of lions, from which the 
place takes its name. The inscription around the base of the fountain was : 
" Blessed be he who has given the monarch Mohammed a mansion which in 
beauty exceeds all other mansions. Here is a garden containing wonders of 
art, which God forbids should elsewhere be found. Look at this solid mass 
of pearl, glistening all around and spreading through the air its shower of 
prismatic bubbles, which fall within a circle of silvery froth exceeding even the 
marble itself in whiteness. What is this fountain but a beneficent cloud, pour- 
ing out its abundant supplies over the lions beneath, like the hands of the 
king, when he rises in the morning to distribute plentiful rewards among his 
soldiers, the lions of war ? " 

One of the peculiarities of the Alhambra was its abundance of water. 
Besides the fountains there were courts, in the midst of which were large 
oblong glassy sheets, in which were seen repeated the architectural details, or 
in which was reflected the azure sky. A long, narrow bed of roses bordered 
the basin on either side, and a perennial stream stole in at one end and out 
of the other, leaving the surface nearly on a level with the paved floor. 

In the Plaza de los Algibes is a large reservoir built by the ancient kings 
of Granada. The water is said to be the best in the city, and there are always 
around it inhabitants from the vicinity waiting their turn to procure a supply. 

The traveller, desiring to see one of the most picturesque of Nature's 
wonders, must leave the direct route from Granada to Barcelona, and go 
through the celebrated Pass of the Despenaperos. It is situated in the moun- 
tains of the Sierra Morena, or Brown Mountains, a chain which extends as 
far as Estremadura, dividing La Mancha from Andalusia. As a general 



8o 



PICTURESQUE EUROPEAN SCENERY. 



thing, nothing can exceed the bleakness and barrenness of these mountains. 
During the latter part of the past century, it was determined to build a road 
over them, and a celebrated engineer succeeded, after infinite pains, in con- 
structing a highway which is one of the best high-roads in Europe. The 
rough rocks were faced, bridges were constructed, and a smooth and even road 
led the traveller to the Pass of the Despenaperos. Here the rocks approach 
so closely as to almost touch each other, and form as it were an arch over 
the heads of travellers. In the sketch the diversity of light and shadow is 
wonderfully brought out. The travellers ascending the road are almost lost 






WWittWTHKMMI.lVAWWWViWieiMjKilViV 












PATIO DE LA ALBERCA. 



in the dark shadow of the overhanging cliffs, while on the other side of the 
abyss the sun is shining with almost a pure white light. Issuing from the 
pass, and ascending to the higher ground, we have spread out before us an 
extensive view in every direction. One can trace the long, weary journey 
from his first entrance into the mountains until he stands upon a level with 
their summits. 

The city of Barcelona is situated in a plain bounded on the northeast 
by an amphitheatre of hills, while on the southwest the mountain of Monjuich 
defends it from the unwholesome winds which sweep over the marshes at the 



PICTURESQUE EUROPEAN SCENERY. 



81 



mouth pi the Llobregat. The form of the city is almost circular, bein 




THE INQUISITION, BARCELONA. 

built round the old Roman town, which occupied a small eminence in the 
centre ; traces of its ancient walls and other remains are still visible. The 



82 PICTURESQUE EUROPEAN SCENERY. 

sea has retired many hundred yards from the port-gates, and buildings are 
now standing on what was in former days the bottom of the harbor. 

The prison of the Inquisition, a view of which we present, is exceedingly 
interesting : there is a sort of picturesque beauty in the huge, gloomy tower, 
pierced with tier above tier of narrow windows. It was within the walls of 
this building that the terrible tribunal sat. The inquisition in Spain is of 
especial interest from the fact that, although it had nominally existed for years, 
it was not until 1478 that it ceased to be a religious tribunal and became an 
affair of state. Having made an application to Pope Sixtus IV. to permit its 
reorganization, the crown assumed the right to appoint inquisitors. In 1483, 
inquisitors were appointed under the notorious Thomas de Torquemada ; the 
Roman church was obliged to tolerate what it could not prevent, and the 
number of victims condemned to be burned during the sixteen years Torque- 
mada was in power is stated by one historian to have been not less than nine 
thousand. Diego Deza, his successor, whose tenure of office lasted only half 
the space of time of his predecessor, is said to have put over sixteen hundred 
to death by the same means. Whether the above figures are to be relied 
upon or not, certain it is that it is impossible to contemplate the amount of 
cruelty practised by the holy inquisition without shuddering. 

If a person were suspected of heresy, it was the custom of the inquisition 
to immediately arrest him and put him in prison ; at the convenience of the 
judges he was brought up for trial. He was not allowed to face his accusers, 
or hear their evidence ; and in case this was not deemed sufficient, the accused 
himself was put to the rack in order to obtain from him a confession of guilt : 
in case he was found guilty, — and very few escaped from the secret trial, — 
the victim was either burned at the stake, executed on the scaffold, or doomed 
to pass his life in -solitary imprisonment. As we look upon this ancient 
Inquisition at Barcelona, we shudder as we call to mind the thousands of 
innocent persons who have within its walls fallen victims to the usages of a 
barbarous age. It was long, however, in falling into disuse ; under the rule 
of Joseph Bonaparte it was suppressed, but at the restoration it again showed 
its horrid head; and it was not until 1835 that it was finally abolished, and 
Spain forever freed from its rigorous and unjust proceedings. 

Leaving Barcelona, we proceed in a northeasterly direction to the city 
of Saragossa. It is situated in the midst of an extensive and fertile plain 
irrigated by the Ebro. This noble stream separates the city from the suburb, 




THE LEANING TOWER OF SARAGOSSA. 



PICTURESQUE EUROPEAN SCENERY. 85 

and is crossed by good stone bridges. As you approach the city, its towers 
and spires give it an imposing appearance ; but when within its walls, the 
traveller is disgusted by the narrowness of its streets. It is bounded on 
either hand by high and distant mountains. The city is built of brick ; the 
houses are not so high as they usually are in old Spanish towns ; the streets 
are narrow and crooked, with the exception of the Corso, or principal street ; 
the more pretentious edifices, which were once occupied by the nobility, have 
been suffered to go to decay, their opulent owners preferring the more fash- 
ionable city of Madrid. There are many very interesting public buildings in 
Saragossa, among which may be mentioned the two Cathedrals, the Archi- 
episcopal Palace, and the Exchange. One of the principal objects of interest 
in Saragossa is the Leaning Tower, sometimes called the Tower of San Felipe, 
an octangular clock-tower, which, like the towers of Pisa and Bologna, leans 
considerably out of the perpendicular. It does not, however, lean so much 
as the Tower at Pisa ; that is more than sixteen feet from off the centre of 
gravity, the Tower of San Felipe only nine. The architecture of this tower 
is of Moorish design, and is considered very elaborate. 

The history of the siege of Saragossa during the first year of the Penin- 
sular war presents one of the most romantic displays of patriotism in the 
annals of history. The French, despising alike the strength of the place and 
the character of the people, thought to take the city by storm. On the 15th 
of June, 1808, a party of the enemy entered the city, all of whom were slain, 
and the French commander, Lefebvre, was compelled to draw off his troops 
beyond the reach of their guns. On the 27th, having been reinforced, they 
renewed the assault, and were again repulsed ; but the Terrero was taken ; 
and from this spot the French showered down shells and grenades into the 
city, where there was not one building bomb-proof, while' they continued to 
invest it more closely. During the night of the 28th, the powder-magazine, 
in the very heart of the city, blew up, it was supposed through treachery, 
destroying fourteen houses and about two hundred persons. At this signal 
a fresh attack was made on the city, which was directed chiefly against the 
Portillo Gate. Here the battery, which had been formed of sand-bags piled 
up before the gate, was repeatedly destroyed, and as often reconstructed under 
the fire of the enemy. It was on this occasion that Augustina Zaragoza, 
a beautiful young woman of the lower orders, came to the battery with a 
supply of refreshments for the troops. She arrived at the moment when not 



86 



PICTURESQUE EUROPEAN SCENERY. 



a man was left alive to serve the batteries. At once she formed her reso- 
lution. Snatching a match from the hand of a dying artillery-man, she applied 
it to a loaded twenty-six pound gun, vowing never to quit the gun alive. 
The men of Saragossa, at the sight of such undaunted courage, rushed to 
her support, and the fire from the battery was renewed with greater vehe- 
mence than before, and the French were repulsed at all points with great 
slaughter. Such is the story of the " Maid of Saragossa." 




THE FOUNTAIN OF THE CYBELE. 



A few miles from Segovia stands the Chateau of La Granja, a summer 
residence of the royal family : it takes its name from the farm or grange 
on which this castle was built. This palace was erected by Philip IV. in 
1720; the style of architecture is copied from the French of the time of the 
regency of Louis XV. The statues which adorn the building were executed 
by French artists. The facade is remarkable for its rich ornamentation, al- 
though the details are not always in good taste. The chateau is often com- 
pared to Versailles, and is a Versailles in miniature ; it is surrounded by 
a vast park, filled with statues, grottos, basins of water, and fountains that 
have a more abundant supply of water than Versailles itself. One fountain 



PICTURESQUE EUROPEAN SCENERY. 



87 



especially attracts our at- 
tention, — The Fountain of 
Fame, so called, which is 
said to throw a jet of water 
one hundred and fifty feet 
into the air. 

The traveller, in jour- 
neying from Madrid toward 
the Escorial, passes through 
a lonely and desolate country. 
After leaving the bridge San 
Fernando, the whole way 
is uninteresting, the coun- 
try barren, the soil poor, 
and the inhabitants rude and 
boorish. The Escorial rises 
in gloomy state, surrounded ^ 
by peaks of naked rock ; g 

c 

around its walls are clus- ^ 

r 

tered mean and insignifi- 
cant buildings, which detract 
greatly from its general ef- 
fect. It is erected on the 
site of an old iron mine ; 
from out the pit the work- 
men threw their slag and 
cinders, and from these ref- 
use heaps the place was 
named. 

Popular tradition as- 
cribes the founding of the 
Escorial to the victory gained 
by the Spanish forces over 
the French at the battle 
of St. Ouentin, which was 
fought on the ioth of August, 1557 




It is related of Philip II., that while 



88 



PICTURESQUE EUROPEAN SCENERY. 



the battle was in progress, he was kneeling between two confessors, and 
vowing convents and monasteries to San Lorenzo, whose anniversary it was, 
if he would only give victory to the Spanish arms. Whatever connection 
his prayers had with it we cannot say, but, thanks to the bravery of their 
leader, Philibert of Savoy, the Spanish troops were victorious, and Philip kept 




THE ROYAL PALACE, MADRID. 



his promise. Five years after the battle of St. Quentin, in 1563, the royal 
monastery of San Lorenzo was founded ; various architects are credited with 
its design. It is built in the shape of an immense gridiron, because San 
Lorenzo is supposed to have broiled on a gridiron. It was, therefore, deemed 
appropriate that this stupendous temple in his honor should be in the form 
of a gridiron laid on its back, — four towers for its upturned legs, parallel 



PICTURESQUE EUROPEAN SCENERY. 91 

ranges of buildings for the bars, and a long structure, the royal apartments, 
for the handle. It was erected as a burial-place for Spanish royalty, as 
well as for a monastery. The library is very rich in rare books, in spite 
of the ravages of war and fire. A singular fact in connection with this 
library is that the books have their backs all turned to the wall, and their 
edges outward. Over the door is seen the threat of excommunication against 
all who should steal books from the library. 

Madrid has not that flavor of great antiquity which has so charmed us 
in other cities in the Iberian peninsula. There was a time when the site 
of Madrid was only a hunting-seat, and when its vicinity was covered with 
vast forests, in which roamed boars and bears. On account of its hunting 
facilities it became the favorite resort of Spanish royalty. When Charles V., 
phlegmatic and wearied by the gout, found relief in its bracing air, he deserted 
the former residence of royalty, and here laid the foundation of the present 
city. But as it did not become the capital of Spain until the time of Philip 
II., it does not boast of many very elegant buildings. The edifice which 
contributes most to the architectural embellishment of the city is the Royal 
Palace. It is one of the most magnificent palaces, not only in Spain, but in 
the world. It occupies the site of the Alcazar, or Castle of the Moors, which 
was burned in 1734. The base is constructed of granite, and the facing of 
the windows of white Colmenar stone ; the architecture is a commingling of 
the Ionic and Doric. Within, there is a small chapel in the pure Corinthian 
style, and the library is rich in the number and value of its treasures. This 
palace is nearly five hundred feet in length, and looms up so that it is easily 
seen for many miles. The entrances and ground-floor appear more like those 
of some mighty fortress than of the peaceful habitation of the rulers of 
Spain. 



NORTHERN PROVINCES OF PORTUGAL. 




HE kingdom of Portugal is a mere offset of the Spanish mon- 
archy : under the name of Lusitania it was a province of 
Roman Spain ; in later days it shared with that country the 
ravages of the Suevi and the Visigoths, and, still later, was 
overrun and occupied by the Moors. Early in the eleventh 
century, Henry of Burgundy, for the very important services 
which he had rendered to Alfonso VI. of Castile, obtained the 
hand of his daughter, with the government and possession of 
all the lands in Portugal, whence he had expelled the Moors, 
and which were erected into an hereditary earldom. The son 
of this marriage, the brave Alfonso Henriquez, who succeeded 
his father in 1112, — having obtained a miraculous victory over five Moor- 
ish kings on the plains of Ourique, — was proclaimed, by the unanimous voice 
of his troops, King of Portugal. It . is scarcely possible to conceive a 
more lovely scene than is presented to the traveller as his carriage descends 
the mountains which surround the bay of Vigo. Villages and churches are 
seen here and there on the shore, while in a corner towards the southeast, 
and extending from the base of a lofty hill some way up its side, appears 
Vigo itself, glittering with its houses of white, surmounted by its venerable 
castle, and forming one of the most prominent objects of the whole view. 

From Vigo to Seixas is a ride of several hours, when the carriage is 
exchanged for mules, and there follows a long ride through a wilderness whose 
grandeur and sublimity is equalled only by the tediousness of the journey. 
From Vianna to Barcellos the road is miserable. Indeed, Portugal is noted for 



PICTURESQUE EUROPEAN SCENERY. 



93 



bad roads. One over which a carriage can pass is a rarity. The high-roads 
are often so narrow that two persons cannot ride abreast on them ; and not 
unfrequently they are so covered with mud that one quite pities the horses as 
they pass through it. Often they are more than ankle-deep in water, and 
sometimes paved with huge stones, which make the horses slip and stumble 
as if they were going every minute to fall, and seem designed to impede, 
as much as possible, the progress of man and beast, and whatever else passes 
over them. Barcellos is beautifully situated on the Cavado, over which stands 
a venerable bridge connecting the portions of the town on the opposite 
banks. 




BARCELLOS. 



The dress of the men offers few peculiar features, and differs little from 
that of the peasantry of the south of France. In speaking of the dress of 
the ancient inhabitants of the peninsula, Strabo says that the Lusitanians 
wore black cloaks, on account of their sheep being principally of that hue. 
It is probably for the same reason that the clothes of the Portuguese of the 
present day are either brown or black. The costume of the women pos- 
sesses a great deal of character. The skirt, with flat plaits, is short and 



94 



PICTURESQUE EUROPEAN SCENERY. 




sometimes drawn up through a girdle high enough to show more than half 
the leg, which is generally bare. The body of the dress, fastened across the 



PICTURESQUE EUROPEAN SCENERY. 95 

chest with two or three silver buttons, fits close to the figure, and being 
separate from the skirt, allows the chemise to puff out around the waist. The 
sleeves, which are those of the chemise, are wide, and occasionally worn rolled 
up. The head-dress consists of a wide-brimmed hat of black felt, sometimes 
adorned with tufts, and nearly always wrapped round with the /euro, or white 
handkerchief, whose folds, falling" over the neck and shoulders of the wearer, 
protect them from the sun. Long ear-rings, and sometimes gold necklaces and 
chains, complete this picturesque costume, of which yellow, red, and bright 
green are the predominating colors. 

The principal part of the town of Barcellos stands on the right bank 
of the river, which slopes considerably. The streets and houses are good. 
The population is about four thousand. 

The road between Vianna and Oporto, for the greater part of the way. 
is much of the same character as described. The Moors have left evident 
traces of their former occupation of the country, on both the style of its 
buildings and the features of its inhabitants. Oporto (see page 94) is a very 
fine and imposing city, situated on two granite hills on the north bank of 
the Douro. On the left bank of the river, connected with Oporto by a sus- 
pension bridge, is Villa-Nova de Gaia, the ancient Portus Cale. The Cathe- 
dral and the Episcopal Palace overlook the town, while the Convent of Serra 
do Pilar, turned into a fortress by Dom Pedro in 1832, protects or keeps 
in order the suburbs. The port is crowded with shipping, bearing the flags 
of all nations. The streets running from the base to the summit of the 
hills are almost perpendicular, — regular stairs cut out of the solid rock; and 
the Douro almost disappears in the gloom into which it is thrown by the 
inaccessible hills that form its banks. The effect thus produced is, from a 
distance, most picturesque; but it is not improbable that the inhabitants would 
prefer a city easier to travel through, and even an artist would gladly yield 
a little of the unevenness of the ground for the sake of a little more national 
coloring, and have it less French, less English, and more Portuguese in its 
architecture. Oporto is, above all, a business city, and the water-side, the 
quays, the adjacent streets, particularly the " Rua Nova dos Inglezes," where 
a kind of open-air exchange is held, are all devoted to commerce. The cele- 
brated wines of the Douro, so well known to us under the name of " port- 
wines," are stored in Villa-Nova de Gaia, where are also in full operation 
many distilleries, tanneries, chemical factories, silk factories, &c. The nobility, 



9 6 



PICTURESQUE EUROPEAN SCENERY. 



whose influence has considerably decreased since the fall of Dom Miguel, have 
their mansions grouped near the cathedral ; the finest and best stores and 
shops are found in the " Rua das Flores," a very agreeable lounge for people 
of leisure ; the money-changers and bankers have their offices in the " Largo 
da Feira," and the sailors congregate by the water side, in the old part of 
the town, in dark, gloomy, and hardly accessible streets. 

The banks of the Douro are most beautiful and romantic, and afford the 
people of Oporto many charming views from different parts of their city ; while 
there are many sweet spots on it, a short distance off, to which they resort 
when they wish to enjoy a day's pleasure, apart from the " crowd and hum 
of men." 




THE CASTLE OF GUIMARAES. 

A day's journey takes one to Guimaraes. Its situation is enchanting, 
in a circular amphitheatre, nestled among mountains, and it is historically one 
of the most famous cities in Portugal. Here Count Henry held his court 
when the country was as yet but an earldom ; and in this place was born 
his son, Alfonso Henriquez, surnamed " the Victorious," who was its first king. 
The appearance of the city corresponds well with both the beauty of its posi- 
tion and its historical celebrity. Its streets are fair and wide ; its buildings 
quaint and picturesque ; and even the very pavement, consisting principally 
of rude, irregular flag-stones, contributes to it a mediaeval character. The 
square is worth describing. On the east is the Cathedral, a small but ven- 
erable structure of the fourteenth century ; adjoining it, immediately in front, 
is a fountain, the very sight of which, besides being in such a climate agreeable 



PICTURESQUE EUROPEAN SCENERY. 



97 



and refreshing, carries one back to times of antiquity; at a short distance 
towards the south is a beautiful stone canopied market cross ; whilst in a 
corner at the northwest, painted blue, surmounted by a cross and raised on 
a cloister, is the Hotel de Ville. The houses, with their projecting roofs 
and balconied windows, are quite in harmony with the other buildings. It 
was one of the most frequented parts of the city, and yet an air of religious 
solemnity, by no means partaking of gloom nor at all inconsistent with cheer- 
fulness, seems to pervade the whole scene, affording an apt illustration of 




CATHEDRAL OF GUIMARAES. 

the influence which Christianity should exercise over the actions and pursuits 
of daily life. The ruins of the Castle are (see page 96) situated on a rising 
ground near the town. They are fine and interesting, but by no means exten- 
sive. The Cathedral, which we here present, is dedicated to Nossa-Senhora 
da Oliveira, a name due to a curious old legend. In the time of the Goths, 
Wamba was in the act of ploughing a field, and with the goad in his hand 
stimulated his oxen, when the delegates of the nobility came to him to 
announce his accession to the throne. Surprised and incredulous, Wamba, 
who had never thought of obtaining the crown, replied that he would be 



9 8 



PICTURESQUE EUROPEAN SCENERY. 



king when his goad, which he struck into the ground as he spoke, should 
bring forth leaves. By a wonderful effect of vegetation, or, rather, as the 
leo-end says, by the miraculous intervention of Heaven, the goad took root 
immediately, and was suddenly covered with branches, leaves, and fruit. The 
remembrance of this prodigy is not confined to the chinch, for in front of 
Nossa-Senhora da Oliveira, the Padrao (monument) stands, a witness of the 
worship yielded to the tradition of the olive-tree. This monument, a small 
Gothic building of the early part of the fourteenth century, and due to the piety 
of Dom Joao I., stands close to the spot where the miracle is supposed to have 
occurred ; and the very olive-tree of Wamba, or at least a shoot from it, is 
there still, surrounded by an iron railing, spreading forth its branches, young 
and vigorous, yet honored, venerated, and almost worshipped by every suc- 
ceeding generation for the last ten centuries. 

The Cathedral is a nice old building, but it has received some grievous 
mutilations without, and has been miserably Italianized within. The cloisters 
are venerable and tolerably extensive. One is shown, in the sacristy, the pelote 
worn by Dom Joao I. at the battle of Aljubarrota, which was fought Aug- 
ust 14, 1385, and a silver altar, in the form of a triptych, representing the 
different events connected with Our Lord's nativity, taken from the portable 
chapel of Don Juan, King of Castile, after the same battle. The anniversary 
of this victory is still kept at Guimaraes, as a day of religious rejoicing. 
Guimaraes is a manufacturing town of about nine thousand inhabitants. 

Thomar is a very pretty, clean-looking town, pleasantly situated on the 
river Nabao, and claims the attention of the traveller as possessing the finest 
architectural treasure in the whole kingdom, — the Convent of the Military 
Order of Christ. 

This order was founded in 1338 by King Diniz, who declared its knights 
the heirs and successors of the Order of the Temple, suppressed in 13 12. 
At first established at Castel Marim, opposite the African coast, the head- 
quarters of the Order of Christ were, in 1320, transferred to Thomar, where 
they remained until the law of 1834 closed all the monastic establishments 
of the kingdom. Masters of the property and privileges formerly held by 
the Templars, possessing twenty-one towns and four hundred and seventy-two 
commanderies, these knights inaugurated a new era in the world's history. 
Taking the initiative of great maritime discoveries, they obtained, under their 
grand-master, the Infant Henry, son of Dom Joao I., the exclusive monopoly 



PICTURESQUE EUROPEAN SCENERY. 



99 



of distant and extended navigation, and became famous by their wonderful 

exploits. It was their banner that 

Vasco de Gama bore to India, — 

their banner that Alvarez Cabral 

planted on the shores of the Brazils. 

Ascending a noble flight of steps, 

one passes into the church through 

a beautiful cloistered court, wherein 

several knights had been buried. 

The sanctuary is circular, and in the 

centre of it is the high altar, under 

an octagonal canopy of stone, gor- 
geously gilt and painted, and sup- 
ported by very massive pillars. The 
great entrance on the south is inde- 
scribably rich, adorned with images 
of the Virgin and Child, of bishops, 
saints, and doctors of the church. 
The west end, too, is covered with 
gorgeous carving. The church-bell 
is the largest in Portugal. The 
Casa do Capitiilo, or Chapter House, 
built by D. Manoel, is a long, low 
room, with a stone roof, under the 
Coro Alto, and of which the portal 
(a view of which we here give) is 
the chef-d'oeuvre of the architect. 
On the tympanum of the archway 
is a screen richly decorated with a 
dozen statues, of which that of the 
Virgin occupies the centre. From 
the windows of the monastery are ob- 
tained magnificent views of the town 
and a wide expanse of country. portal of the chapter house. 

The situation of Lisbon, standing on several hills on the right bank of 
the Tagus, is truly magnificent ; and so is the view of it from the river. 




IOO 



PICTURESQUE EUROPEAN SCENERY. 



The Praca do Commercio is said to be the finest square in Europe. Its 

length is six hundred and fifteen feet, 
its breadth five hundred and fifty. It 
is open on the south to the Tagus ; 
but the three other sides are sur- 
rounded with buildings, comprising 
the Exchange, Custom House, and 
other public offices connected with 
the commerce and government of the 
country. In the centre is an im- 
mense equestrian statue in bronze of 
Dom Jose, the only one ever erected 
to a Portuguese monarch, and con- 
sidered of remarkable excellence. The 
sculptor was Joaquim Machado de 
Castro, a native of Portugal, who died 
in 1822, at the age of ninety. 

The road from Lisbon to Cintra 
is good, but there is nothing par- 
ticularly interesting in the country 
through which one passes. The first 
view of Cintra which is obtained when 
entered from this direction is wild 
and rugged, consisting principally of 
a succession of rocky peaks, rising to 
an immense elevation in naked bar- 
renness. When, however, it is fairly 
reached, there are other features added 
to the scene which quite change its 
character. Below these rocks, which 
seem to have been formed by some 
natural convulsion, is a mountain- 
height covered with all kinds and 
degrees of verdure, sloping down into 
a valley of the sweetest luxuriance. The royal palace is a large irregular 
building of Moorish origin, as is evident from its architecture and construction, 




GATE OF THE CASTLE OF PINTRA DE CINTRA. 



PICTURESQUE EUROPEAN SCENERY. 



IOI 



o 

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en 

H 



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but with many additions from successive Portuguese sovereigns. The win- 
dows, on the exterior, were surrounded with arabesque ornaments. One of 



102 PICTURESQUE EUROPEAN SCENERY. 

the rooms, with a marble floor, contained in its centre a circular reservoir 
filled with water, around which, it is said, its first inhabitants used to lux- 
uriate in the heat of the day. There are also fountains and jets d'eau to be 
met with in other parts, one of which, in a court adjoining the bath-room, is 
sometimes employed to sprinkle visitors unawares. All these bring to mind 
the founders of the palace : but it is also rich in historical reminiscences of a 
later date. Thus, one room is pointed out in which the unfortunate Sebastian 
held his last audience, and the chair in which he sat, before he set out on his 
unhappy expedition into Africa, from which he never returned ; another, with 
a handsome tiled floor, part of which is worn by the footsteps of Dom Affonso 
VI, who was here kept prisoner for the last fifteen years of his life, after he 
had been most deservedly compelled to abdicate the throne ; another, the roof 
of which is adorned with the royal arms of Portugal, the escutcheons of the 
sons and daughters of Dom Manoel, and those of the Portuguese nobility. 
To this apartment there is a magnificent marble doorway of Moorish archi- 
tecture, and from its windows with the aid of a glass is had a very good 
view of the palace of Mafra. 

Mafra, a convent, church, and palace in one, was commenced in 1717 by 
Dom Joao V., on the plans of a German named Ludovici. It was situated, by 
a royal whim, in the midst of a gloomy and barren spot. It contains eight 
hundred and seventy apartments, five thousand two hundred windows, three 
hundred cells, and three churches, of which the principal is a copy of St. 
Peter's at Rome. 

Mafra ruined Portugal. When the king died in 1750, the treasury was 
empty, not enough money being left to pay for Masses for the deceased. 

Portugal is not a large nation, but it has played a part in the past that 
puts it on a level with great countries, and it is artistically and historically 
most interesting. The Portuguese, far from resting on the laurels won in the 
past, appreciates the present, and its events and progress. Intellect, tempera- 
ment, and instinct, — all appear to be reawakened in him. Some prejudices 
that retard his progress, he may still retain ; but they must soon yield to 
truth and reason, and then nothing can prevent the present from comparing 
favorably with so glorious a past. 




GERMAN EMPIRE. 



B 



ERLIN may appropriately be called a city of palaces, 
for there is scarcely a street in all the five towns and 
as many suburbs that go to make up the great city, that does not boast 
of some splendid public building, or some palace either of the royal family 
or of the higher nobility. Other European capitals have their one or two 
handsome quarters, but the fine houses of Berlin are on every hand. Domes, 
colonnades, and all the elegances of Greek architecture meet the eye where- 
ever we turn, and from the width of the streets, and the agreeable variety 



104 PICTURESQUE EUROPEAN SCENERY. 

of avenues of trees and flower-gardens intervening, each building is seen to 
the best advantage. 

The Emperor's Palace is the main feature of the city, owing much of its 
imposing appearance to its colossal size. Its length is four hundred feet, its 
breadth two hundred and seventy-six, and its height a little over a hundred. 
It has four inner courtyards and six hundred rooms, of which those shown 
to the public are daily filled by a throng of visitors. The finest among these 
show apartments are the Picture-Gallery ; the White Hall, furnished entirely 
in marble at an expense of six hundred thousand dollars ; the Rittersaal, 
containing statues of the Electors ; and the Chapel, whose dome rises above 
the other roofs, giving variety to the outline of the great mass. 

The existence of a palace on this spot dates to a grant made by the city 
of Berlin to the Elector Frederick I. This document was signed on St. 
John's day, 1442, and the Elector, at once improving the concession made 
him, had his castle finished and ready for occupancy in 145 1. Of this fortress, 
for such it really was, some separate portions remain, incorporated in the 
present structure. In 1538 great alterations were made by Joachim II., the 
champion of the Reformation. An architect, Kaspar Theiss, whose name is 
yet renowned in Germany, tore down much of the early structure, and began 
the building of an edifice which may be properly called the first palace of 
Berlin. For fifty years this work went slowly on, under different architects, 
till the city of Berlin set fifteen masons at work upon it, and in 1595 it was 
completed. In 1604, further additions were made to the building, all of which 
are yet standing. In 1694, Frederick III. appointed Andreas Schliiter court- 
builder, and when in 1701 the Elector became King of Prussia, he carried 
on the enlargement of his palace with renewed enthusiasm. Finally, in the 
reign of Frederick William I., the work was completed, and the vast structure 
stood forth as now it stands, but with a single exception, — the new Chapel 
with its beautiful dome, added by Frederick William IV., the brother and 
immediate predecessor of the Emperor William. 

In 1866 the present emperor, then King William I., gave orders for the 
erection of the building his brother had designed for the University, to be 
called the National Gallery, and consecrated to the exhibition of German art 
in all its forms. Ten years passed as the work went on, and on the 22d 
of March, 1876, the doors of this magnificent edifice were thrown open, and 
the German world was bidden to see that, amid all the din of arms and 



PICTURESQUE EUROPEAN SCENERY. 



io- 



advancement of material interests which have characterized the decade just 
passed, the traditional love of art has burned with as ardent a flame as in 
any days of peace the nation had ever known. 

The building itself, in all its parts, is a magnificent triumph of German 
art. Architecture, sculpture, and painting have vied with one another in 
bringing to it their most beautiful and precious gifts, " to prove," says Dr. 
Zehlicke, with a pride not unpardonable in such a case, " that the German 
people not merely win victory by the sword, but in the arts of peace have 
grown to be a match for any nation in the world." 







t-__. C"-3itc^ii 



GROTTO. SANS SOUCI. 

From Berlin to Potsdam is a distance of about twenty miles, accom- 
plished in three quarters of an hour by train, but a charming drive by the 
road, if one is not pressed for time. This road is one continuous avenue 
of trees, and has rather the air of a private approach to some stately chateau 
than of a public highway. The country, watered as it is by the Havel, 
abounds in the finest trees and most luxuriant shrubbery, and has afforded 
the landscape gardener points of picturesque beauty of which the utmost 
advantage has been taken. 

The town of Potsdam is somewhat like a miniature Berlin. The streets 



io8 



PICTURESQUE EUROPEAN SCENERY. 



are broad and regular, and planted with ornamental trees, and it is rich in 
architectural decorations of the same general character as those of its more 
important neighbor. The great attraction of the town, however, is the Palace 
of Sans Souci, built in 1745-47, by Frederick the Great. The approach to 
the palace is by a broad avenue, through gardens laid out in the formal 
French style of Louis Quatorze, with alleys, clipped hedges, statues, fountains, 
and grottos, all kept in perfect order. 




COLONNADE. SANS SOUCI. 



The building itself (see page 109) stands at the top of a flight of terraces, 
so to speak ; these terraces are fronted with glass, beneath which grow vines 
and olives and orange-trees, in the utmost luxuriance. The palace is quite 
devoid of architectural beauty, a long, low building containing but one suite 
of apartments ; from the grotesque alto-relievos with which it is profusely 
ornamented, and the gold letters of " Sans Souci" which it bears on its facade, 
the French frippery of Frederick's taste may be clearly inferred. The front 
of the building is towards the east, and commands a view of many objects 
of interest. In the rear there is a semicircular colonnade, extremely inter- 
esting as being the place where the greatest monarch of his day was wont 



PICTURESQUE EUROPEAN SCENERY. 



109 



> 

z 

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V) 

o 

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o 




to pace to and fro for hours in the sunshine, when the failing health of 
his declining years incapacitated him for greater exertion. 



no 



PICTURESQUE EUROPEAN SCENERY. 




THE NATIONAL GALLERY. 



The apartments of Sans Souci are by no means elegant ; the pictures 
are rather ordinary, and the furniture poor. In the small library, consisting 



PICTURESQUE EUROPEAN SCENERY. Ill 

solely of French books, is still seen, just as the monarch left it, his writing- 
table and inkstand, and in the adjoining apartment the visitor is shown the 
spot where the arm-chair stood in which he died. In short, the memory 
of Frederick the Great lingers about and pervades his favorite home, as 
though it were but yesterday that he paced the terrace, " his head covered 
with his well-worn plumed hat, his figure wrapped in a cloak of sky-blue 
satin, much besprinkled with brown Spanish snuff, and his legs incased in 
a pair of huge jack-boots." 

Verily it is with pleasure that we turn from the elegant modern aspect 
of Berlin and its suburbs to a city of the past, Dantzic, once a free city 
on Polish territory, at the time when the kingdom of Poland extended from 
Hungary on the south, all the way to the Baltic shores. Not to say that 
Dantzic is solely a city of the past, for, with its seventy thousand inhabi- 
tants, and its enormous trade in grain and in timber, it is a commercial power 
of importance of the present day. But it has still, in spite of its modern 
improvements, many relics of the earlier time, in the form of fine specimens 
of antique architecture, which the town takes pride in preserving, and restoring 
when they fall into decay. 

The origin of the old city is veiled in the poetic darkness of tradition. 
The Edda narrates how, before the time of Christ, wandering colonies from 
the shores of the Black Sea made their way as far north as the amber-land, 
for so it was then known, from its earliest export, founding there a new 
Aso-aard, which had the name of Gidania, called, in Polish, Gdansk, — hence, 
later, Danske, and Dantzic. 

Dantzic became what was called a " Free City," having its own laws, 
coining its own money, — stamped, it is true, with the head of the Polish 
king, — and being represented in Warsaw in the Assembly, and at the election 
of the kings. At times the city was mutinous, and would not agree in the 
election of some of the kings ; but, on the whole, their relations with Poland 
were harmonious enough for them to feel bitterly, German by race though 
they were, the change when, in 1793, they became, on the dismemberment 
of Poland, a part of the German kingdom of Prussia. The new affiliations 
were, however, so really the natural and true ones, that, though the immediate 
subjects of the change took it ill, a generation later reconciled themselves to 
it completely, and the city of Dantzic is now one of the most loyal and 
enthusiastic in the new empire. 



112 



PICTURESQUE EUROPEAN SCENERY. 




NORTHEAST CORNER OF INNER COURTYARD. 



The Franciscan Cloister is one of the most ancient foundations in Dantzic. 

It had fallen so much into decay, hav- 
ing been a hospital in war times, and 
having been much injured by a great 
fire in .1857, tnat > ten years since, the 
stranger, exploring this old North Ger- 
man city, would scarcely have deemed 
it worthy of his notice. 

In the inner courtyard (here rep- 
resented) a fountain sends up its spark- 
ling jet, surrounded by flower-beds. 
In the northeast corner of this court- 
yard, a tower with antique winding- 
stairs, and a balcony with a stone 
balustrade, built against the church, 
unite the dwelling-house and studio 
of the painter Sy, the curator of the 
Museum, with the main building. 
Another fine old structure is the Hohe Thor, the city gate, opening into 

the fortress. It is of sandstone, built in 

1588 and restored in 1 861, as the inscription 

tells. Upon its richly ornamented front are 

three great armorial designs : that of Poland 

in the centre, those of Dantzic and West 

Prussia at the right and left. Passing under 

the lofty archway, we cross a little bridge 

over the moat, and so perceive ourselves to 

be in a stronghold, a wall on each side and 

a castle before us. The old maritime city 

is a fortress of the first rank ; it has stood 

many a siege, but none more severe than 

those in the time of the Napoleonic wars. 
Another point of interest is the Town 

House (see next page), with its fine tower 

like that of a church ; and the Artushof, or Young Men's Hall, where the 

young patricians of Dantzic held many a merry revel in the fifteenth and 




CITY GATE. 



PICTURESQUE EUROPEAN SCENERY. 



"3 




sixteenth centuries. In front of the Artushof sparkles and laughs the fountain 
as it did then, but there is now a Neptune with his trident, drawn by his 
sea-horses, which is of much later date than 
the building of which it is an ornament. 
Lamp-posts, too, the observer will detect, a 
contribution of the nineteenth century, far 
from unwelcome in the long, dark nights of 
a northern winter. 

Lastly, we observe the old Arsenal, a 
peaceful-looking building, notwithstanding the 
statue of Minerva, and the numberless war- 
like emblems that adorn its facade. This 
building dates from the beginning of the 
seventeenth century, and, to the brickwork of 
the main structure, adds sandstone for the 
setting of windows and doors, and for the 
abundant decoration of the entire front. Over T0WN HALL ' dantzic. 

its main entrance are the armorial bearings of the city: two white crosses, 
beneath a golden crown upon a red field, supported by two lions. 

Another important town in the eastern part of the German empire is 
Breslau, the capital of Silesia, and the second city in Prussia in point of popu- 
lation. It is built on both banks of the Oder, which is crossed by an iron 
bridge. The old fortifications of the town, partially destroyed by the French 
in 1807, have since been completely levelled and converted into fine boule- 
vards. There are several admirable old Gothic churches, but the most beauti- 
ful specimen of mediaeval architecture is the Town House (page 114), founded 
by King John of Bohemia, the blind king who fought and fell at Agincourt ; 
and showing, as it now stands, for the most part the Gothic of the fifteenth 
century. 

Another Town Hall, that in Brieg (see page 115), is a real marvel of 
Gothic architecture, and the little town, otherwise most uninteresting, well 
repays a visit, by the sight of this picturesque old structure. 

From Breslau across the Riesengebirge, the Giant Mountains, that are 
the boundary of Silesia, we make our way to Dresden. It is some hundred 
and fifty miles, more or less, a wild and picturesque road, abounding in moun- 
tain torrents and in dense forests. Here and there we catch a glimpse of 



ii4 



PICTURESQUE EUROPEAN SCENERY. 




TOWN HALL. BRESLAU. 



some pilgrimage church buried deep in the woods, or on the summit of some 
hill, and leading up to it a road marked with crosses and life-size nVures 



PICTURESQUE EUROPEAN SCENERY. 



115 




TOWN HALL. BRIEG. 



representing the crucifixion (page 117). Leaving the mountains behind us we 
rapidly traverse the fertile Saxon country, and soon see, rising in the level 



n6 



PICTURESQUE EUROPEAN SCENERY. 



distance, the towers and roofs which indicate Dresden, " the Florence of the 
North." 

In this city there is so much to see that the traveller will gladly linger 
there for weeks. With the space at our command we can give the reader but 
a couple of pages, and with the Zwinger we believe that we present the most 
characteristic illustration of the Saxon city : it represents a specimen of 




THE ZWINGER. DRESDEN. 

eighteenth-century magnificence which was borrowed from France, and was 
nowhere more the fashion than in the capital of Saxony. 

The Zwinger was an extravaganza devised by Augustus the Strong, that 
unfortunate Elector whom Frederick the Great brought to such woe and hu- 
miliation. In his prosperous days he did, like Kubla Khan, 

" A stately pleasure-house decree," 

but got no further with it than this Zwinger, which is really nothing more 
than the fore-court and entrance to the proposed palace. In the centre stands 
a bronze statue of Frederick Augustus the Just, who was much more worthy 
to be remembered than the real designer of the edifice. Within, the Zwinger 
contains Museums of Antiquities and of Natural History, and so is put to 
better use, perhaps, than if the great palace had risen up behind it. 

The Old Bridge is the finest stone bridge in Europe, perhaps ; but we 
have not space to give an illustration of it. It is like a wide, paved street, 



PICTURESQUE EUROPEAN SCENERY. 



117 




FOREST ROAD IN THE GIANT MOUNTAINS. 



with a raised sidewalk and an open stone railing on both sides. When the 
river is low the great bases of the piers are in sight as one leans over the 



n8 



PICTURESQUE EUROPEAN SCENERY. 



il ■' --' 




bridge and looks down. They broaden like a flight of steps, till it seems 
as if they must meet and make a solid floor resting on the river's bed. 



PICTURESQUE EUROPEAN SCENERY. 1 19 

Before leaving that portion of the German empire which lies cast of the 
Elbe, we must glance at Schwerin, the capital of Mecklenburg, which contains 
in its Grand-Ducal Palace (see page 118) one of the most beautiful and im- 
posing structures of the modern German school of architecture. There, upon 
an island, at the point of contact of two lakes, stands the many-towered, com- 
plex structure, aspiring towards heaven, in countless gables and little spires and 
turrets, crowned by the gilded cupola whose summit is two hundred feet from 
the ground. Its facade is adorned with numerous statues and inscriptions, chief 
among them the colossal equestrian statue of the Slavic prince, Niklot. 

The palace is so admirably brought before the eye, in the illustration, 
that in the room of further description we will say a word of its history ; for, 
all modern as it stands before us, in its first beginnings the Grand-Ducal 
Palace is more than a thousand years old. And the place where it stands is 
memorable in the history of the north, and of the civilization of all Germany, 
since here the strife raged hottest between the old heathen Wendish races 
and the German Saxons ; here, finally, the Teutonic sword and the cross of 
the true faith were victorious over the heathen Slavs, and a state was founded 
destined to endure, vital with German civilization. 

Here stood the ancient Slavic stronghold, in which Niklot, the last prince 
of the Obotrites, had his abode. Against him came out Henry the Lion ; 
and, in terror of the event, Niklot set fire to all his fortresses, Schwerin in- 
cluded. Then, with a few faithful followers, he faced the enemy, and met an 
heroic death in the field. With him ended the Wendish rule, and Schwerin 
became a German state. This happened in 1160. 

Lastly, Hamburg, the great commercial metropolis of the empire, with a 
population in i860 of 230,000, of whom about ten thousand are Jews. This 
part of the population were formerly under various civil and other disabilities, 
and gathered in their own quarter; but in 1849 tne Y were emancipated by 
legal act, and at the present time residences of wealthy Jews abound in the 
most fashionable quarter of the town. 

The city stands on the eastern bank of the Elbe, and its broad expanse 
opposite the city forms the harbor, where vessels can load and unload in 
perfect security. 

In the new quarters of Hamburg the houses are like palaces ; all is neat, 
orderly, salubrious, full of light and air, and resembles Paris or London. 
" Leaving the new quarter," says Theophile Gautier, " I penetrated by degrees 



120 



PICTURESQUE EUROPEAN SCENERY. 



into the chaos of the old streets, and soon I had before my eyes a characteristic 

and picturesque Hamburg, a 
genuine old city with a mediae- 
val stamp that would rejoice 
the heart of an antiquary. 

" Houses, with denticulated 
gables, or gables curved in vo- 
lutes, throw out successive over- 
hanging stories, each composed 
of a row of windows, or, more 
properly, one wide window di- 
vided into sections by carved 
mullions. Beneath each house 
is excavated a cellar, a subterra- 
nean recess, which the steps 
leading to the main entrance 
bestride like a drawbridge. 
Wood, brick, stone, and slate, 
mingled in a way to enrapture 
a painter's eye, cover what little 
space is left on the outside of 
the house between the windows. 
All this is surmounted by a roof 
of red or violet tiles, or of tarred 
jews' street. Hamburg. plank> interrupted by apertures 

to give light to the attics, and pitched at an extremely steep angle. These 
roofs have a fine effect against the background of a northern sky ; the rain 
runs off them in torrents ; the snow slips from them ; they suit the climate, 
and need no sweeping in winter. 

"Walking along, still at random, I came to the maritime part of the city, 
where canals take the place of streets. At the moment it was low water, and 
vessels lay aground in the mud, careening over and showing their hulls in a 
way to delight a water-color painter. Soon the tide came up, and set every- 
thing in motion. I would suggest Hamburg to artists following in the track 
of Guardi or Canaletto ; they will find here, at every step, new themes as 
picturesque as those they seek in Venice. 




PICTURESQUE EUROPEAN SCENERY. 



121 



Among the oldest of German cities is Magdeburg, the capital of the Prus- 
sian province of Saxony, a city which has had the privileges of municipal exist- 
ence ever since Charlemagne. Luckless Magdeburg ! so strong a fortress that 




CLOISTER OF CATHEDRAL. HALBERSTADT. 



the black storm-cloud of war has ever gathered thickest around it. No siege is 
so memorable as that in 163 1, when, after two years' beleaguerment, the fierce 
Tilly carried it by assault, and massacred men, women, and children, then 
burned nearly every house within the walls. 



ROME. 



M 



I 




OME is the repository of all that is grand in antiquity, beautiful 

in art, and rich in historical lore. To one who bears within his 

heart the love of the beautiful, or venerates the gflory of the 

rrt&^&kA P ast > tne Eternal City offers a never-ending source of pleasure, 

of research, and of information. 

An immense gulf of time intervenes between that era when 
Romulus gathered around him the restless spirits of ancient Italy, and formed 
the nucleus of a community whose fame and renown were to fill the pages 
of the history of the world for twenty centuries, and the Rome of to-day. 
One by one the nations of the earth submitted to the arms of Rome. In the 
words of Niebuhr, " As the streams lose themselves in the mighty ocean, so 
the history of the peoples once distributed along the Mediterranean shore is 
absorbed in that of the mighty mistress of the world." One by one the 
customs of the conquered nations were adopted by the Romans. One nation 
after another sought alliance with them, until the infant kingdom, in the 
course of time, held undisputed mastery over the whole world. Still, amidst 
the magnificence and luxury of imperial rule, the decay of the empire began 
to be visible ; the stern virtues of ancient Rome gave place to a sensual 
luxury that debased the mind. Amidst magnificence which might have begot 
undying love of country and patriotic zeal in its defence, amidst all that art 
and literature gave forth to adorn and beautify, to elevate and refine, there 
sprang up the antagonistic powers of luxury and indolence, which were ulti- 
mately to overthrow the proud city, and plunge her into the depths of national 
decay. For a time she feebly opposed the incursions of the barbarian hosts 
who hovered over the confines of her empire ; but the Vandals, the Huns, 



PICTURESQUE EUROPEAN SCENERY. 



123 



and the Visigoths, frugal and brave, detached, one by one, the fairest provinces 
of the empire, and, finally, with one fell swoop crossed the Italian plains, and 
like an avalanche fell upon the gates of the city itself. Time passed on ; 
Rome arose again from her ruins, and preserved a name amongst the nations ; 




ANCIENT CONSTANTINIAN BASILICA OF ST. PETER'S. 



but she could no longer lay claim to her former title of "Mistress of the 
World." Fallen though the imperial city was, it is a singular fact that she 
gave to her conquerors language and laws, and her tongue was made the 
basis of a common language. 

St. Peter's, as it looms up against the horizon, is the very embodiment 



124 PICTURESQUE EUROPEAN SCENERY. 

of grandeur and sublimity ; a single row of Corinthian pillars and pilasters 
forms the front. Above this rises an attic, on which are the statues of Christ 
and the Twelve Apostles : over and above all rises the magnificent Dome, 
which constitutes the chief charm of the picture. 

" Lo ! the Dome — the vast and wondrous Dome, 
To which Diana's marvel was a cell ! " 

The ascent to the roof of St. Peter's is by a well-lighted staircase. When 
the spectator reaches the platform, he is astonished at the number of cupolas, 
domes, and pinnacles that rise around him, and the galleries that spread on 
all sides, and the many apartments and staircases that appear in every quarter. 
It is here only that the dimensions of the dome can be felt in all their force. 
The vast platform of stone on which it reposes as on a solid rock, the lofty 
colonnade that rises on this platform, and by its resistance counteracts, as 
a continued buttress, the horizontal pressure of the dome, — all of stone of 
such prodigious swell and circumference, — the lantern, which, like a lofty 
temple, sits on its towering summit ; these are objects which must excite the 
astonishment of every beholder. 

The ancient Constantinian basilica of St. Peter's, or the Church of St. 
Peter's that existed at the time of Constantine, in 326, has fortunately been 
preserved to us by a fresco now extant in the Church of San Martino di 
Monti. This ancient painting, with the assistance of some engravings by 
Falda, now extremely rare, enables us to reproduce this old basilica erected 
by Constantine in token of the wonderful appearance of the angel and the 
cross to him. The five aisles of the basilica were separated by Corinthian 
columns, which were higher by six steps than the main floor, — an arrange- 
ment almost unprecedented in architecture. By the engravings of Falda 
we are able to describe the exterior, and thus from the frescos and the en- 
gravings we are enabled to see exactly how this early Christian church was 
built. 

Few travellers visit the Gardens of the Vatican, — the Pope's Garden. 
One is so filled with ancient art that it seems almost a waste of time to 
spend the hours in wandering amidst nicely trimmed shrubbery or festoons of 
verdure. But when fatigued with sight-seeing, it is refreshing to leave gal- 
leries filled with paintings and statuary, to turn aside from the ancient inscrip- 
tions and antique busts, and pass an hour in the quiet Italian gardens, to 
sit beneath the overarching trees, and enjoy the poetry of solitude. The 



PICTURESQUE EUROPEAN SCENERY. 



125 



a 
> 

o 

m 

z 



H 
X 
m 

< 
> 

H 

O 

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z 




Garden of the Vatican must be a place of comfort to the Pope. The enclosure 
is divided and subdivided by squares and fanciful figures, filled with choice 



126 PICTURESQUE EUROPEAN SCENERY. 

and aromatic flowers ; the sides are enclosed with hedges of orange-trees, and 
fountains are continually cooling the atmosphere ; numerous avenues cross and 
recross each other, and here is the only place where the Pope can ride on 
horseback, the etiquette of Rome not permitting him to ride outside his own 
grounds. 

During the sixteenth century, in the pontificate of Leo X., these gardens 
resounded with the good cheer of that witty and pleasure-loving Pope ; and 
here, enlivened by the charms of female society, poets rehearsed their finest 
verses, and authors read their choicest productions. But a change was insti- 
tuted in church polity, and the popes of later days have not invited ladies to 
join them in their festivities in this beautiful retreat. 

The Sistine Chapel, so called in honor of Sixtus IV., aside from its beau- 
tifully decorated marble screens, is rendered famous by the decoration of its 
ceiling. This ceiling is said to be the most magnificent example of pictorial 
art ever produced. It was painted by Michael Angelo, between the years 
1508 and 1511, and contains the most perfect work done by that artist in 
his long and active life. 

The prophets and sibyls, in the triangular compartments of the curved 
portion of the ceiling, are the largest figures in the whole work. These are 
the most wonderful forms that modern art has called into life. They are 
all represented seated, employed with books or rolled manuscripts ; genii stand 
near or behind them. These mighty beings sit before us, pensive, meditative, 
inquiring, or looking upwards with inspired countenances. Their forms and 
movements, indicated by the grand lines and masses of the drapery, are majestic 
and dignified. 

The Erythraean Sibyl, of which we present a picture, is " full of power, 
like the warrior goddess of Wisdom." Lady Eastlake calls her " a grand bare- 
headed creature ; " and a truthful and realistic description it is. The belief 
that the sibyl foretold the coming of the Saviour is best shown by the well- 
known hymn, beginning, — 

" Dies ifae, dies ilia, 
Solvet saeclum in favilla 
Teste David cum Sibylla." 

The most massive, and consequently the most imposing of all the edifices 
of ancient Rome, is the Coliseum. It is pre-eminently the building of all 
others which is the most intimately connected with our past thoughts. This 




ERYTHR/EAN SIBYL, SISTINE CHAPEL. 



PICTURESQUE EUROPEAN SCENERY. 



129 



vast amphitheatre was begun by the Emperor Flavius Vespasian, upon the 
site of Stagnum Neronis, and was finished by his son Titus, who dedicated 
it in the year 80. It is built in the form of an ellipse, and is nearly one 
third of a mile in circumference. Tier after tier of seats rise above the 
arena, affording in its palmy days room for eighty-seven thousand spectators. 
Around the arena a wall, adorned with rich carvings and incrustcd with costly 
marbles, served to protect the pleasure-seekers from the savage beasts, which, 




THE ARENA OF THE COLISEUM. 



except in combat, were confined in underground dungeons beneath. From 
these elevated seats the emperors eagerly watched the conflicts between wild 
beasts, the martyrdom of the early Christians, and the combats of gladiators. 
What horrible memories cling around this spot ! Here, by command of Hadrian, 
the patrician Placidus, his wife, and two sons, were exposed to wild beasts, 
and when they refused to tear them to pieces, the terrified family were enclosed 
in a brazen bull, and roasted to death ; sometimes the martyrs were despatched 
by the swords of gladiators, or burned at the stake. On the spot where the 
Christians were martyred has been erected a cross, and once a week religious 



130 



PICTURESQUE EUROPEAN SCENERY. 



services are now held on the ground hallowed by the blood of the early 
martyrs ; around the arena are also seen the stations used in the ceremonials 
of the Church of Rome. 

Beneath the floor of the arena, which was supported by walls, were the 
cells in which the wild beasts, and possibly the early Christian martyrs, were 
confined. The place is full of historic meaning ; it is pregnant with the deeds 




CELLS UNDER THE COLISEUM. 



of the world's mightiest conquerors. Here the shouts of lordly triumph once 
mingled with the screams of the dying ; the memory of the gorgeous pageants 
which have taken place here cannot be eradicated from our minds ; and the 
Christian can never visit this, the most imposing ruin in the world, without 



PICTURESQUE EUROPEAN SCENERY. 



I3i 



a heavy feeling in his heart for the good, the beautiful, and the holy, who 
here offered up their lives a willing sacrifice for the faith they bore. 

Famous among the mouldering monuments of ancient Rome that have 
attracted the attention of the traveller and the antiquary through all gen- 
erations, stands the Arch of Septimius Severus. It stands in the north- 
west corner of that repository of all that is magnificent and grand in art and 
architecture, the Roman Forum (see page 136). It at once attracts the eye 
by the beauty of its design and the symmetry of its proportions. Erected 
a. d. 203, to commemorate the victories achieved by Septimius Severus over 
the Arabians, Parthians, and Adiabeni, it originally bore upon its summit, as 
the ancient coins inform us, the figure of the emperor, crowned with victory, 
seated in a bronze chariot drawn by six horses. The bas-reliefs upon the 
side represent scenes connected with the various conquests which the arch 
perpetuates. 

For many years this arch was imbedded in rubbish, and partially covered 
by the debris of ages; but in 1803, by the order of Pius VII., it was disin- 
terred, and now remains plainly visible, although several feet below the modern 
street. 

Among the most notable of the Roman fountains ranks the Fountain of 
Trevi. The effect of this fountain is somewhat diminished by its situation. It 
is so surrounded by narrow streets that the grandeur of its proportions is lost. 
When once in front of it the stranger gazes upon what at first appears a 
palace, in the centre of which, his feet resting upon a shell, stands Neptune, 
while, on either side, Health and Fertility stand in opposing niches : beneath 
all is a large stone basin, into which the water rushes with a pleasing mur- 
mur. The chaste bas-reliefs represent the discovery of the Aqua Vergina. 
We see depicted the young virgin pointing out to the soldiers of Agrippa a 
spring of refreshing water. The water of Trevi, as it rushes with force over a 
mixture of rockwork and ancient sculpture, seems hardly the same limpid 
stream, which, starting at the Terre Solona, runs for seven or eight miles 
under ground, and furnishes the supply to some dozen fountains ; but here, 
broken and scattered, it flashes in the sunlight, and renders cool and delicious 
the surrounding atmosphere. 

When the visitor at Rome stands for the first time in the ancient forum, 
now called the Campo Vaccino, a thousand memories of the dead past oppress 
him, and in silent wonder he gazes upon the magnificent ruins which surround 



132 



PICTURESQUE EUROPEAN SCENERY. 



him, emblems of all that was once grand in art and architecture. The remains 
of temples, arches, columns, basilicas, and churches rise before him, crumbled 
by the all-devouring hand of Time. The forms of St. Paul and of Cicero have 
rendered sacred the ground on which the pilgrim gazes, and the very stones 
before him have been worn by pious and holy men. 




TEMPLE OF MINERVA. 



We will not attempt to delineate the past glories of the Roman Forum, but, 
throwing aside the feelings and sentiments of the past, endeavor to see it as 
it is in the nineteenth century. One by one, through the exertions of antiqua- 
ries and the liberality of governments, the monuments of ancient days have 
been uncovered, and stand boldly revealed to us of to-day. 

From the Capitol we obtain the most comprehensive view of the Forum. 



PICTURESQUE EUROPEAN SCENERY. 133 

It is of an irregular quadrilateral form, and occupies the ground between the 
Capitoline and Palatine Hills. On the immediate foreground the pillars of the 
Temple of Saturn, sometimes called the Temple of Concord, appear; between 
its columns of granite we catch a glimpse of the column of the Emperor 
Phocas, called by Byron, before excavations had revealed its inscription, — 

" The nameless column with a buried base." 

To the right we see the ruins of Caesar's Palace, — a vast mound of red 
bricks, crowned with trees, and high in air rises the elegant Campanile of 
Santa Francesca. 




CAMPO VACCINO, OR ROMAN FORUM. 

In the distance, the circular and familiar walls of the Coliseum rise ; high 
on the right its massive walls appear gilded with sunshine, while above the 
trees of the modern street the dismantled walls of the southerly side are seen. 
To the right of the Coliseum the Arch of Titus crowns the road, and at the 
extreme right of the picture we see the three columns which once belonged 



134 



PICTURESQUE EUROPEAN SCENERY. 



to the Temple of Castor and Pollux, said to be unsurpassed as specimens of 
Corinthian architecture. Beyond are the ruins of ancient temples, mingled 
with modern churches, while the open space in front is occupied by the 
disinterred remains of the Basilica Julia. 

The illustration on page 134 represents the Temple, or, properly speaking, 
the Portico of the Temple, dedicated to Minerva. It is one of the most 




VILLA MEDICI. GARDEN FRONT. 



beautiful of the monuments of Rome ; it is, however, merely a fragment, the 
temple to which it was a portico having long since gone to decay, or been 
used in the construction of the modern edifices by the Roman Popes. This 
portico is supported in front by two exquisite Corinthian columns, half buried 
in the debris of the Eternal City. 



PICTURESQUE EUROPEAN SCENERY. 135 

The various baths of Rome, the remains of which lie scattered throughout 
the city, show to what an enormous extent the pursuit of pleasure was carried. 
The luxurious Roman of a former day could here find baths tempered exactly 
to his wish, in magnificent halls, warmed at different temperatures; he could 
recline on luxurious couches, surrounded by his friends, and waited upon by 
slaves. Scent shops were there, where the newest perfume and the best oil 
could be obtained. At stated seasons theatrical performances were given, 
races were run, stalls and kitchens were erected, where the palate of the most 
dainty Roman could be satisfied. The artist might rove at will through 
vast galleries filled with the paintings of the first artists, or cumbered with 
ancient statues. However varying the taste of the frequenter, somewhere in 
these vast thcrmce he could find that which ministered to pleasure, either of 
mind or body. 

But among all the baths of ancient Rome the Baths of Caracalla stand 
pre-eminent. They are the most perfect in their preservation, the most mag- 
nificent in their ruin. Resting on a level plain between the northeastern slope 
of the Aventine and the Appian Way, the Baths of Caracalla occupy a space 
nearly a mile in circumference. The baths themselves were nearly in the 
centre of the enclosure, and were surrounded by porticos, gardens, and an 
artificial lake, formed by the waters of the Antonine Aqueduct, brought hither 
by Claudius, over the Arch of Drusus, and the ruins of which may still be 
seen crossing the Campagna. It is said that sixteen hundred bathers could 
be accommodated at one time in these extensive baths. The floors and ceil- 
ings were inlaid with costly marbles, in various colors, and to-day the visitor 
treads upon mosaic work of intricate and varied designs. Many fine statues 
have been found in these ruins ; among the most celebrated are the Farnese 
Hercules, the Two Gladiators, the Flora, and the Toro Farnese, which is so 
conspicuous an object of interest at the Museum in Naples : others of less 
fame have been discovered, and the person in charge showed the writer several 
bass-reliefs, fragments of ancient sculpture, cameos, and intaglios. 

The most magnificent of all the halls of the baths is that portion 
known as the Calidarium. During the sixth century, when these ruins are 
supposed to have still retained their original splendor, this hall was sur- 
rounded by stately columns of gray granite. One by one these columns 
have been removed, and in the sixteenth century Cosmo di Medici trans- 



136 PICTURESQUE EUROPEAN SCENERY. 

ported the last one to Florence, to support the statue of Justice in the Piazza 
di Sta. Trinita. 

But now all this glory has disappeared : the mosaics have fallen from 
the roof, the delicate frescos have been obliterated by the ruthless hand of 
Time. Winter snows and summer suns have crumbled the works of sculptors, 
artists, and masons, and to-day flowers and vines cluster around these relics 
of the past. Shafts of columns lie half buried in rubbish, and the rank 
grass grows from the high arches, beneath whose cooling shade the deni- 
zens of ancient Rome, plebeians and patricians, loitered away their days, or 
in the indulgence of gross and vulgar sensuality spent the long hours of the 
night. 

The Palatine ! The very name brings up a host of images of the past. 
We recall the days when we went to school, and read the story of Romulus, 
marking out, by a furrow drawn around this hill, the site of his city. We 
recall the great names who have lived upon the Palatine, — Cicero, Catiline, 
Marc Antony, and Augustus, the mother of the Gracchi and her jewels. We 
call to mind the magnificent mansions that were here erected by the highest 
nobility of ancient Rome. The Palace of the Caesars, the temples of the 
gods, all seem to rise before us. 

Here were erected the palaces of the aristocracy, decorated with the most 
brilliant frescos, and adorned with statues that might have rivalled those of 
Praxiteles. The floors of the palaces were inlaid with marble, and pillars 
of the same, delicately colored, supported the roof; gems and precious stones 
were lavished in the ornamentation of the halls and chambers, and all the 
wealth that foreign lands could bestow was poured into the lap of the Roman 
nobility. But, far outshining the residences of private men, there rose upon 
this hill a gorgeous succession of imperial palaces. Here resided in succession 
Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula, and Claudius ; and around these costly dwellings 
rose successively temples dedicated to the gods and to distinguished men. 
But in course of time Constantine carried away much of the accumulated 
treasure of the city to enrich his new city, Constantinople ; the towers and 
the inscriptions over the gates were torn down, and their bronze portals trans- 
ported afar in the plunder train ; and what the Goths and Vandals did not 
destroy, has crumbled beneath the hand of Time, and now all that was once so 
grand and magnificent lies covered with the dust of a thousand years ! 



